Defect
by Mr. Wuggles
Summary: Rut Season has begun to uproot everyone's lives. Goku and Vegeta must learn to deal with their new relationship, as well as their new rolls as parents. Chapter 20 up! Please Review!
1. Rut Season

He stepped out of the small cottage Chichi and I shared, and took a deep breath as he stretched in a cat-like manner.

He sighed longingly. "Do you smell it Kakorot?" He asked, not quiet turning around to look at me.

I took a deep breath as well. "Chicken?"

"No," He snorted. "Rut season."

"Rut season?" I asked. "What's that?"

He sighed again, this time in annoyance. "It's when Saiyans have the urge to mate."

"Mate?" I frowned. "You mean, have sex?"

"Yes, whatever you want to call it." He waved me off, and began to walk off as I followed him. "Soon, you'll have an undeniable wanton lust for me."

"That sounds dirty."

He laughed at my unintentional joke; an actual laugh that caught me off guard. "You won't think so when you can see only in red, and the only thing that seems to make sense to you is fucking the first Saiyan you see."

"You?" I asked, "Why would I go after you, and not my wife?"

"Because her sent is all wrong. You'll go after someone you can smell from a mile away. Someone you can fuck and not kill all at the same time. It could be Trunks. Or maybe one of your sons? Who knows?"

"My sons?" I choked on that thought. "Why would I go after my one of my own sons?"

He shrugged. "It's only on this planet where incest is considered wrong and immoral. As well as the general thought that only women and men are to be wed with children."

"What are you saying?"

He thought about it, probably trying to think of a way to explain it to me without freaking me out. "On Vegeta- Now keep in mind that the concept of a condom never went well with Saiyans. On Vegeta, 75 of the entire population is male. With only one out of four being female, the process of reproduction would be very difficult; taking into account that breeding season is always 15 years apart. This gives new cubs time to sexually mature. Are you with me so far?"

I nodded.

"So to ensure the population a quick leap every 15 years, one out of every three Saiyan men can be used as an incubator for children. You fallow?"

"So… you're saying that Saiyan _men_ can become pregnant?"

He cringed. "I hate that word. But yes, that's what I'm saying. And with half the population used for reproduction, all was well and life was happy."

"That's… creepy."

He shrugged once more. "Creepy or not, since there are five of us, most likely two will be able to reproduce."

That thought brought me to a new level of realization.

"What to do, what to do?" he asked, a glint in his eyes.

"When will it start?"

"When? It's already started, Kakorot. Can't you smell it?" His nostrils flared for effect.

"Can we stop it?"

He seemed to think about it. "No." He stared at me for a moment, and then smirked. "There's nothing to fear, Kakorot, I'm not that bad in bed."

He left me to think about that.

At first, I thought he was just joking. But as the days went on, that 'joke' seemed to become more and more real by the minute.

Everything seemed to simply loose color, until there was nothing but bleak red. Food became unappetizing, and I had an urge to eat everything as fresh as I could get it; even if that meant eating it live.

The sides of my stomach seemed to burn at times, especially when I saw Gohan or Goten. I would wake in the middle of the night with the urge to scream wildly, while sweat dripped down my fiery body like I was melting.

As the days went on, they seemed to grow longer. Every minute seemed to be my own little hell. The heat began to get to me within those days, and I found myself wading out in ponds near my house. This wouldn't have been odd; except for that it was November.

At one point, I thought my brain was melting, because everything was red in my eyes, similar to a time when I got a concussion while fighting and found I could only see in purple and green for three days.

I was reduced to wearing nothing at all most of the time, only putting clothes on to leave the house or when Chichi told me to.

Gohan and Goten seemed relatively unaffected by the heat, but that could have been because they only had half the blood for it.

Eventually, I had to go to Vegeta with more questions.

When I found him, he was laying naked on the Gravity Room floor. He looked dehydrated, and still hot, but relatively peaceful.

I nudged him with my foot. When he woke, he rolled over and grabbed for the towel next to him that was drenched with sweat to cover himself.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, his voice coming out raspy and dry sounding. As a last resort to grab the upper hand, he smirked and said, "Come to molest me already?"

"How do I make the heat go away?" I flat out asked.

He didn't need to think about this time. "Mate with a Saiyan." He started to walk away to find a cooler spot to lie.

"That's it? That's the only way?" I asked following him.

"Yes. I answered your question, now leave me alone."

"But… that _can't_ be the only way!"

He shrugged. "Don't believe me. I don't care. Go away."

I grabbed his arm as he tried to leave once more. I pulled him closer to me than I had intended. "How can I fix it?" I growled. I could smell him now; more so than I could before. His sent seemed to waft into my face and absorbed into my skin.

He growled back, but more so like an animal than a man. "Let go, Kakorot. I just told you how to fix it. What more do you want?"

That question lingered in my mind for a moment. What more could I want from him?

I found it odd that he did not pull away, though. I also noticed his other hand clutched the towel around his waist tightly.

Gently, I grabbed his other arm and pulled it away. His towel fell down at once with a small whisper.

Though I could only see things stained in red, he looked perfect at that moment. I hadn't notice just how attractive he was up until then; how his small body seemed to compliment my large one with perfection only a god could place. And the lusty look on his face; worth the weight of the world in gold.

Without too much thought, our lips pressed together. He stepped back and hit the wall behind him. I pinned both his arms over his head to give myself complete control.

I soon found myself grinding against his bear flesh, and could hear his throaty moans inside my mouth.

He bit my lip, whether it was on purpose or not, but did not stop this wondrous heart-breaking kiss.

Finally, he pulled away. When I made the move to dive back in, he stopped me. He told me something in Saiyan, and then repeated it again. "Far too soon to go any further." He whispered, lips swollen and pouty looking.

He gave me one last chaste kiss and pulled away from me. He covered his throbbing erection with his towel from the floor, and left the room without another word.


	2. Paranoia

Paranoia seemed to start the whole epidemic, not the 'Rut Season' itself.

Gohan and Goten dropped by less and less often, and I heard Chichi and Bulma talking about how Trunks would not come out of his room. I didn't think they realized exactly what was going on, but Vegeta told me they would be made aware in a few days time.

Obsessed with the thought of becoming or getting someone pregnant, I stayed away from everyone, even my own wife.

I stayed out in the woods; my sides burning with desire, and a constant erection.

I tried not to think about dirty thoughts, but they would inevitably enter my mind. Most of them were not even heterosexual thoughts; the majority of them involved me and the Prince.

In all my thoughts, he was always beneath me, panting, moaning, biting. There was always a scene where he would writhe beneath me, calling out my name in a low throaty groan. Then I would come inside him, and we would come to that moment when we never wanted it to end.

I would usually collapse right afterwards, and be content for several minutes, before we would start all over again.

I didn't really have a particular love for Vegeta; barely even a tolerance; but the thought of him alone turned me on. He didn't even have to do anything; all he needed to do was blink, and I was off into an uncontrolled chaos.

I supposed Chichi wondered where I was; I had been gone for almost two days now.

An almost familiar sent floated through my nose. I couldn't immediately place the smell, but then knew a moment later.

Gohan landed in front of me a few minutes later, and simply stood there, watching me for several more seconds.

His face was flushed, and the tell-tall actions of Rut where easily seen as he moved. He had no shirt on, just a pair of jean shorts and flip-flops. He didn't have a belt on, so his shorts where slipping downward off his hips.

All at once, he had gotten my attention.

Panting, in a fashion that seemed to excite me all over again, he began. "I… did something bad, father."

I half-listened, tempted to touch his face and chest as he talked.

"The day before yesterday, I went over to Bulma's. She wasn't home. Vegeta either. I guess I was looking for Trunks, because he was there. In his room. And we…" He stopped to think about what he was going to say thoroughly. "We… kissed… and then before I knew it… we were having sex."

I didn't really care about this news; I did not want Trunks. Just Vegeta. And now, for the moment, Gohan too.

He looked at me as if he expected some feedback. "Dad, he's 16. That's cradle robbing."

I nodded, though I wasn't really listening.

"I didn't even know what I was doing. One minute we were just talking about stuff … and then… is there something wrong with me?"

I shrugged, trying to get my thoughts straight. "Not really. Vegeta says it's Rut Season."

"What's that?"

"It's when Saiyans have a lot of sex with other Saiyans."

"Why?"

"To make babies. Apparently, Saiyan men can become pregnant too."

"Does… Does that mean that Trunks… could be…?"

I shook my head. "I don't know. Vegeta said that one out of every three Saiyan men can become pregnant. So there's a good chance he won't, but you might want to ask Vegeta." I suggested.

"You want me to tell Vegeta that I took his only son's virginity?" He gave me a look.

I nodded. "He won't be mad; he probably won't even care."

Silence fallowed as Gohan thought it over.

Until now, I had never noticed how nice of a body Gohan had. He was almost as pale as I was, but he was less bulky. I could see a lot of his mother in him, which was a little bit of a turn-off, but who was I to send him away for that?

The fact that he was my son never truly registered in my mind, until I was kissing him and he was kissing me.

My tongue was in his mouth at once, tasting him. I unbuttoned his pants, and they fell to the ground with ease. He was already sporting an arousal, as was I.

We sunk to the frost covered earth; he kicked off his flip-flops and his hands where at once on me.

I had to stop though; the thought of violating my own son seemed out of the question. And plus, he could already be a father to Trunks' child, if there was one.

Telling him to go was the hardest thing ever; making him think I didn't want anything to do with him even harder.

He took his pants and buttoned them back up. He left quickly, knowing he had almost made the same mistake twice.

I sat back down on the ground and went about reliving myself with rough strokes; knowing he was doing the same.

A bead of sweat rolled from my brow and dropped from the tip of my nose.

I left the woods to find a more secluded area. But to my horror, before I even thought about which way to go, I was right in front of Capsule corp.

I must have blacked out or something, because I didn't remember coming all that way. The sent of Gohan lingered at the front door and over by the bushes where he had probably stood before climbing into Trunk's window. Vegeta's sent was everywhere, even on the grass.

Bulma opened the door a moment later. She smiled at me. "Goku, hello. It's been a while since I've seen you. What brings you here?"

"How did you know I was at the door?" I asked.

She gave me a look. "You rang the doorbell…"

"Oh." I said, trying to recall. "I guess I must have. I can here… to see you."

She let me in, and gave me some coffee to drink. The coffee looked red, but it could have been me. I didn't trust it, so I just pretended to drink it.

"So, what's new?" She started with the small talk, and before I knew it, we where deep in conversation. "Do you know what's going on?" She asked.

"With what?"

"With Vegeta. He hasn't slept in the same bed as me fore almost a week now." She leaned in closer. "Is he cheating on me or something?"

I shook my head. "No. It's a Saiyan thing. I don't know if he wants me to tell you, so you'll just have to ask him."

She glared at me, as if she was unsure if she liked my answer. "You're sure he's not sleeping around?"

I nodded. "Yes, I'm sure. If he was, I would be able to smell it on him."

She leaned back in her chair. "Thanks. I really needed some truth from someone." She paused. "This… Saiyan thing… is it happened to Trunks too? He seems moody now; more so than usual. And he stays in his room for much longer than he used to."

"Uh… yeah, it's happening to him too. Just let them do their thing, and this will pass eventually."

In actuality; I hadn't really lied to her. I just… sugar-coated it a bit. And she seemed to buy it. Unless she already knew, and was just playing me into thinking I was winning.

I shook my head. Too much to think about right now; my pants where getting tight again.

"Do you want to see him?" She asked.

"See who?" I looked up at her dazedly, trying to remember the last thing she had said.

"Trunks,"

"Uh… no- I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not?" She frowned at me. She knew I wasn't telling her everything, so now she was trying to force me into it.

"I… uh… have to go to the bathroom." I ran upstairs, careful to stay away from the hallway where Trunks' room was, least I catch his sent, and went into the bathroom.

I stood inside, panting for several seconds. I turned around, and there stood Vegeta, right before me.

I couldn't help but groan at the sight of him.

"Don't you know how to knock?" He asked, a smug little half-smirk on his face. "You're lucky I was done before you got here, Kakorot." He dried off his hands, and crossed his arms.

"What are you doing here?" I found myself asking.

His head cocked as if he were thinking about the question. "I live here." He answered slowly.

"No, I mean…" I gave up. His presence was far too distracting to finish.

"Move." He said, and at first I didn't know what he was talking about. Then I realized I was blocking the only way out.

This could work to my advantage, I found myself thinking. Instead of getting out of the way, I moved back and closed the door completely.

I saw his eyebrow twitch just slightly. "What are you doing now?"

He was stalling. He was trying to think of a way out of this; for he knew neither of us were ready; so he was trying to distract me with questions he already knew the answer to.

I stepped forward, but he had nowhere to step back. He stood his ground; even while I stroked his arm.

"Do you see the red, Kakorot?" He asked softly, his voice husky and unbelievably sexy.

"Yes." I whispered.

"How red is it?" His voice dropped even lower, into something that was more like a growl than anything else.

"Red as blood."

His nostrils flared at that, as if he were trying to smell the imaginary blood. He abruptly swatted my hand away from his arm, and blinked rapidly. "Move."

"I can't." I told him, and placed my hands on his hips. I pulled his lower half to mine, our bodies touching once more. I could feel the heat and hardness in his pants, as he could feel my own.

He looked right at me; and it seemed for the first time, he might have actually been afraid of me. That look in his eyes alone terrified me, but it only lingered for a moment, before he seemed to take it back again.

He allowed our closeness for a while; I think he was trying to calculate something.

When my hand grasped his firm ass, he pushed it away without hesitation. Apparently he did not like that. But I didn't care.

I grabbed him again, and he bit me. Yes. He bit me. He bit me hard enough to draw blood.

I pulled away, of course, letting go of his hips. "Ow, what was that for!"

He looked mad, but his face was flushed with embarrassment. "You touched me, Kakorot."

"But I didn't hurt you," I justified.

He didn't answer to that. He simply watched as I washed off my arm in the sink. After several seconds of running the water, he shut it off and examined my arm.

I was genuinely afraid he would bite me again, when he brought my arm to his mouth. Instead, he ran his tongue over the wound carefully. His eyes glanced up at me, and then back down to the wound.

He cleaned it entirely, as if to apologize. When it stopped bleeding, on of his arms swung around my waist and this time he pulled me toward him.

He allowed me to put my hands on him once more, and this time I stayed away from some of his more… sensitive areas.

I did lift up his shirt slightly, but he pulled it back down. There was a warning look in his eyes.

"You're not going to bite me again, are you?" I asked half-jokingly.

He gave a half-sigh/growl, and permitted me to take his shirt all the way off.

Scars, that I had never really given much thought to before, crossed his chest in random patterns. A lot of them where faint, but some of them where deep with twisted scar tissue that would never truly heal.

I ran my fingers down his chest, and then stopped. Over his washboard –stomach, there was a deep scar running down vertically past his waistband. I cocked my head, and pressed on it lightly.

He didn't move or even acknowledge the touch. The flesh was soft, and seemed like it would be extremely tender.

"Am I hurting you?" I asked, not completing all of my words fully; ending some with a moan and leaving out others all together. He seemed to catch it though.

"I don't have any feeling on that side." He said with a shake of his head

"How did you get it?"

He swallowed forcefully. "I refused to fallow the rules back on Freeza's ship, so he made me into an example for the rest of the crew."

"Why would he do that?"

"Because he knew I would recover." He stated, and moved my hand away from that area; as if pushing me away would stop the questions.

I pressed on another one of his scars, and this time he twitched back. I must have struck a nerve.

"Sorry," I said immediately and moved on.

At one point, I don't really remember where, I had removed his pants and found myself tracing the smaller scars along his hips and upper thighs.

I got down onto my knees to examine him more closely. I could feel the panic he was radiating, but he didn't want me to know he was alarmed. He must have been traumatized back when he was younger, maybe even when he was just a little boy, and now any kind of contact made him jumpy.

I leaned forward, and licked the area right above the strip of course black hair that led to his prize; his soon to be _my_ prize.

I twitched back at this, reluctant to let me continue. I looked up at him, a questioning look on my face.

"Are you this way with Bulma?" I asked, surprised that I would ask such a thing without too much thought.

He shook his head, but in a way that seemed unsure. "Sex… with men… is always different than it is with women."

What he meant was, with women, the man was always dominant. With men, it depended mostly on who could overpower the other.

He wouldn't let me touch him at first; as if me touching him would force him to go all the way. He seemed like the kind of person who liked the thought of being able to take things back. He didn't like doing something where he couldn't simply push 'Undo' and everything would go back again.

After much coaxing, he finally allowed me to wrap one hand around his shaft.

He tensed, and then let out a long sigh when I began to stroke. I could feel his heart beat in my hand; a sharp, pulsing beat that flowed through that area with determination.

He leaned back onto the counter, and let me do what I wanted. Now that I had earned his trust, it seemed, the fun could begin.

I thought about Chichi for a brief moment, before she was instantly vaporized within my mind. This was not the time to think about Chichi.

I stood back up and lifted him gently onto the counter. He growled. "You don't have to treat me like a virgin, Kakorot."

I smirked at this and dropped once more to my knees.


	3. And Now We Mate

I had to pry his legs apart; it was as if he thought that if I had to make him do it, then he could justify later that it was all my fault if he got hurt.

His head tilted back onto the mirror behind him. He gazed down at me, his face flushed red while beads of sweat rolled down his bare flesh.

I cocked my head innocently, toying with him. "Are you all right, Vegeta? You look sick."

His teeth bore, which would have been alarming if he hadn't looked so hot in doing so. "Just get on with it."

I lay my head on his thigh and pouted. "I don't know if I want to now."

"Damn it Kakorot," He hissed, "Fucking..." He went off in a random tangent of unintelligible words that could have been curses or words he made up.

I lifted my head, and stood up slightly. I grabbed his jaw and forced my mouth upon his own. He moaned in to it, I might have as well, and slipped his tough into my mouth.

We both knew there was no going back now; we had come to a point where biases and control no longer mattered. We both wanted it far too badly.

I pulled away, pressing our foreheads together. "Do you want this?"

He was panting softly. He took his hand and pressed it to my crotch. I groaned, the sound reverberating through my chest. "Just do it," He muttered something more, but it seemed like his dissection was final.

I dropped back down to my knees. I could smell the heat on him; could smell his lust.

I took him into my mouth, but not all the way. His hip twitched spasmodically; the leg attached to it kicking slightly.

He bucked all of a sudden when I started to suckle and move from the tip to the midpoint of his throbbing arousal.

I put one hand over his stomach and the other over his inner thigh, to keep him from moving too much. All his muscles were contracting, trying to will me into doing what he wanted.

"Kakorot," He cried softly. "I…" He could not finish. I deep-throated him, his shaft sliding a long ways down my throat.

I pulled up, taking him almost all the way out, and then diving back in again, in slow measures.

He began to purr in between his moaning. I had heard him purr before, in his sleep or when he ate nachos, but never this loud. Never this enthusiastically.

His muscles tensed further. He was ready to come. I stood up halfway, but did not let his shaft free. I could feel the blood rushing like mad through it, veins swelling largely in my mouth.

I completely covered his cock and sucked roughly. That was all it took to make him come. The liquid shot out of him in quick hot bursts, sliding down my throat in one quick load.

He cried out hoarsely, his moans and purrs intermingling. He paused to pant and ketch his breath.

He relaxed against the mirror, his leaving heat causing it to fog slightly. He did not say anything, but rather looked at me.

Still horny myself, I grinned at him. "Tastes good." I licked my lips.

His eyes rolled while he chuckled. "Give me a few minutes, and then I'll do you."

But I didn't want a blowjob; I wanted to do something new. I wanted to know what he felt like from the inside.

I moved closer to him and grabbed his wrist. He didn't seem to take much notice, though. I placed two fingers over my forehead, and then we where gone.

He seemed alarmed to find us in a new surrounding, in the cold forest by the waterfall.

"Why are we here?" He couldn't help but ask.

"Because here, no one can here you scream." I tried to make the statement sound dark, but it didn't really work.

He turned around, and I saw that he was hard.

I cocked an eyebrow. "How can you be hard again?" I gestured to his stiff cock.

He shrugged uncomfortably. "That's how the rut works. You're hard until it ends."

I rushed for him, unable to keep my hands to myself any longer. I touched him everywhere he would let me, now that we were tied with this new found trust between us.

He untied my sash, letting my pants fall to the ground. He pulled off my shirt half-way, but then tore it the rest of the way when it wouldn't come all the way off. He pulled down my boxers, and pulled away from my touches to examine me.

I moved to grab him to me again, but he wouldn't allow me to. He ran one hand over my stomach, and then stopped just before my need.

He dipped to take him into his mouth, but I grabbed him by a fist of hair and forced him to stand up. He growled at this softly.

My mouth met his in a battle of tongues, one trying to overpower the other.

He apparently found the battle not worth his time, for he moved away to kiss down my neck.

Gooseflesh broke out across my body, my arousal becoming more strained.

I scooped him up into my arms, his legs coming to wrap around my waist in a grip so focused, it probably would have crushed anyone else.

I laid him down on some moss near by, and climbed atop him. I did not enter him, but rather touched our lowed extremities together. He looked up at me expectantly. He could not have been more beautiful than he was at that moment. I realized then that I could spend the rest of my life with him and be completely content.

It could have been the rut talking, but leaving Chichi and moving in with Vegeta far away, maybe on another planet, seemed like the best idea in the world right then.

My mind focused on the present.

I slipped two fingers inside him, to see how much I could stretch him before hand.

The inside of him was not at all what I expected. His flesh was mangled in some areas, while others seemed like they never really healed. And then where was a lump of scar tissue to the side of him that felt like it could have been a tumor.

He shifted uncomfortably beneath me. He knew I could feel the damage in there; or maybe he didn't like the feel of my fingers.

It didn't seem like the ravaged tissue caused him any discomfort; more like shame than distress.

I slipped my fingers in deeper, as if looking for something.

He allowed this for only a little while loner before his foot came up and pressed on my arm until I withdraw. Sometimes he amazed me at how flexible he was, and how easily his feet could act as a second pair of hands.

I couldn't hold back any longer. "Brace yourself," I told him, and lifted my hips off of him for a moment.

I slid in slowly, savoring it. He was tight, tighter than I had thought he would be.

He made no sound, simply swallowed a few times and watched me intensely.

After a few seconds, I pulled out, and then instantly rammed back in again.

The aftershock seemed to 'wake him up', for he twisted violently and cried out sharply. But it didn't sound like the deep reverberation one would associate with Vegeta; it was more like a strangled hiccup than anything.

I kept moving, forcing myself deeper inside him every time. I began to pant; getting up on my knees for better leverage.

He lay with his back on the ground, his legs on either side of me. His hips rolled desperately against me, bringing me almost over the edge.

My stomach clenched tightly, my balls seeming ready to burst.

We came to that point where we never wanted it to end; where you knew you were about to come and wanted it too, but at the same time you didn't want to stop.

His panting grew louder, the heat radiating from the both of us becoming thick and sticky in the air around us.

My hands clutched tightly onto him, wherever I could to keep myself inside of him.

He cried something out, it could have been my name or something else, and then he came. His walls came clenching down around me, trying to push me out as well as draw me back in.

I slammed into him one final time before I came as well. I filled him completely, moaning his name and rocking slightly.

I pulled out and came to lie down next to him on the moss, breathless. Sweat soaked and still hot, we lay there for a long while before either of us said anything.

When I realized my eyes were closed, I opened them again. Everything seemed to go back to its original color, the red washed away as if by magic.

I turned to him. I found that he was laying on his side, staring at me; his eyes glazed over as if he were dead.

"Vegeta?" I asked, my eyebrows knitting together.

He blinked, coming out of his comatose-like state. "Hmm?" His voice was gruff again, back to normal.

I ran a hand down the side of his face. He flinched away from the touch.

"You drew blood."

At first I didn't understand what he was talking about. He gestured down. My now limp member was coated with a thin sheen of red.

I looked back up into his eyes. "Don't worry about it." He said casually, "It'll heal in a few days."

I felt really guilty now. I had managed to gain his trust, injure him, and then break that trust all in one afternoon.

I moved toward him, resting my head at the crook of his neck. My arms came to wrap around his much smaller frame.

His sent was strong at that particular area of his body. He smelled kind of spicy now that he was covered with drying sweat. I liked the feel of his heartbeat. I could almost see the blood pulsing through his neck at a slow, calmed speed.

I nuzzled against his neck, and he squirmed away a little.

I almost laughed. Vegeta, Prince of Saiyans, was ticklish.

He was falling asleep. I yawned, tired as well. I dozed off in little time, fully content.

After a long while of dreamless sleep, seeming to be floating within my own mind, I was jarred awake.

Vegeta was desperately trying to pry himself away from me. I let him go, and he scrambled to his feet.

He had broken out into a thin sheen of sweat. He now crutched, panting and shaking, by the waterfall.

"What's wrong?" I asked, trying to sense some kind of danger nearby.

He stood perfectly still for a long while before he came back again. "Nightmare." He said and ventured toward me. He curled up against my chest, the shaking subsiding slowly.

I wrapped my arms around him. "About what?"

"Nothing, it's just part of the rut." It seemed like he had lied to me, right to my face, but I couldn't prove it.

We lay in silence for a few minutes before I had to break the silence. "What are we going to do?"

"About what?"

"About… us. About our wives and families. What are we going to do if a baby turns up?"

The topic seemed to make him uncomfortable. "Until there is evidence of a child, we say nothing to anyone."

"Except Piccolo." I added.

He gave me a look. "Why would we tell the Namek? What could be beneficial from that?"

"We don't have to tell him, he already knows."

"How do you know?" his frown was deepening and his old spite was returning.

"Because this is his waterfall. And that's his cave." I pointed to his lair just a half mile away.

When Vegeta realized exactly what I had done, he completely flipped out. "Holy fuck! What the hell, Kakorot! Why would you bring us here if you knew the Namek would be here!"

I sat up a little. "Vegeta. You know the only way I can instant transmission is if I have an energy signal to fallow. I fallowed his because he was near the waterfall."

"So you mean to tell me that he heard everything we just did!"

"I don't know about _all _of it, but he did hear some. He left a while ago, you just didn't notice."

What did he care if Piccolo heard us or not? It's not like he was standing over us while we did naughty things. He left a long time ago, pretty quickly too. He was actually near Ireland as it was.

Vegeta fell back onto the moss, contemplating. "Kakorot, I hope you realize that your inexplicable stupidity might have just coast us our families."

"I don't think so. Piccolo will keep a secret, especially if talking about the secret makes him uncomfortable."

Vegeta sighed with frustration, dropping the subject. "Take me home. And _not _somewhere were someone will see us and ask why we're naked."


	4. A Second Opinion

For the next week or so, I spent a lot of time with Vegeta. Most of that time was spent having sex, but for a good portion of it, we talked.

I learned a lot about him in that short week. For one, he didn't like it when I touched him without his permission first. He also didn't like when I didn't give him some control when we were alone together.

This was all of course behind our wives backs. I probably should have felt bad about it, but I was in love. Why should I have to suffer with someone else when the person I love is right there in front of me?

The two of us were out in the woods, cleaning off the dried sweat that had accumulated during certain 'actives'.

We stood waist deep in the crystal clear water of a nearby river. It was sort of cold, but I was so hot I didn't really care.

I put my hand over his stomach again for the third time that day.

I couldn't help but touch his stomach every time he would let me. There was no evidence that he was pregnant, but it had become my own little secret obsession.

He sighed irritably. "Why do you keep doing that?"

I withdrew. "I'm sorry, I just can't help it."

He snorted and left the river to put his clothes back on.

I fallowed behind him more slowly. "Do you think… we should get a pregnancy test?"

"What for?" His eyes narrowed.

"You know… just so that we can be sure."

"Do your retarded human pregnancy tests work on men too?"

I didn't know the answer to that. "Probably not." I said reluctantly.

He slipped his shirt on over his head.

"We could ask Bulma for an ultrasound."

He gave me a look so fierce it could have disproved God.

"Okay, fine. We won't ask Bulma." I thought about it for a few moments more. "But if you are… you know… then she's going to notice eventually."

His seemed to disregard the statement.

I snapped my fingers. "Piccolo!"

"What about him?" that frown set deeper into his face.

"He already knows, right? And he can hear everything. So if we get him to listen to your stomach…" he cut me off.

"Forget it. Don't say anything more. Just drop the subject."

I sighed. "Vegeta this isn't the kind of thing were you can just leave it alone and it will sort itself out. You're going to have to face it eventually."

He gave me a sidelong glance. I could see that he was thinking. His hand strayed to his stomach and touched it tentatively. Finally, he responded. "Fine. We'll see the Namek."

We made our way to the lookout. Vegeta must have been pretty worried about this thing to give in so easily.

When we got there, Dende and Mr. Popo were the only ones around.

"Uh… do you guys know where Piccolo went?" I asked.

"He just left. He's probably going to his cave. You know, the one by the waterfall."

I figured he wouldn't go back there; he could probably still smell the sex that had taken place there.

"Okay, thanks." I nodded and we left without another word.

We finally found him in the desert, meditating.

"What do you want?" he asked without opening his eyes. "If you're going to mate, please tell me so I can leave."

I laughed nervously. "We actually need a favor."

He opened one eye and then the other. "What kind of favor?"

He couldn't look us in the eye, probably too freaked out from last time still, even though that was over a week ago.

"We need you to listen to Vegeta's stomach and tell us if he's pregnant."

Piccolo opened his mouth to respond, thought about it, and then shut his mouth again. After a few more seconds he decided to ask. "What?"

Piccolo pressed his hear to Vegeta's stomach. It was kind of cute to watch, but you could tell they both wanted it over as soon as possible.

"I'm not sure what I'm listening for." Piccolo announced and then fell silent again for a moment. "There's a sound like…" he tapped on the ground rhythmically.

"His heart." I explained.

"Wait, wait… hold your breath."

Vegeta did as asked, trying to be as cooperative as possible.

Piccolo pulled away. "You can breath." He pressed on his stomach. "Right here. There's something right here."

"So… you think…?"

"Yeah. I think so." He said and stood up. "Can I go now? A dust storm's kicking up."

Vegeta put his shirt back on and came to stand beside me. "We'll never speak of this, Namek."

Piccolo waved it off. "Yeah, yeah. Just go away."

"Thanks Piccolo." We left to go back to the woods. Not to have sex, but to talk.

I was excited, even though I was terrified. "What do you think it's going to be? I hope it's a girl. I've never had a girl before."

"Kakorot, try to focus. If there is a child to be expected, we have less than five months to prepare."

"Five months? I thought babies took nine months before they're born."

"Not Saiyan cubs. They take far less time because they're smaller and develop more quickly."

I took a seat on the ground, pulling my knees up to my chest. "Only five months? That's not enough time."

"This could be even worst if there's more than one." He pointed out.

"More than one?"

He nodded. "Since this is my third rut, I'm far more likely to have more than one."

"Like, how many? Would you guess?"

He sighed. "Anywhere between one and four."

"Four! Four children all at once? That's insane!"

"The most children humans normally have at once is one. On Vegeta, you're far more likely to have two or three at once than just one."

"Why?" I asked leaning back.

He shrugged. "To keep the population up, I guess." He lay down on the ground next to me and yawned.

I slipped my hand under his shirt and felt his stomach. It was still a perfect washboard, but I imagined it growing out with children in due time. Up to four babies could grow in there all at once. If I had known that, I would have worn a condom.

Three days pasted of worry and regret. Now that the rut was over, I didn't have a driven need to be with him all the time. It was also hard to figure out why I had given into sex in the first place, since it didn't seem so obvious anymore.

I don't think my love for him is dying; just being pushed back a little.

I didn't want to spar with him, least I hurt him somehow. He seemed a little annoyed by this, but he didn't argue that much.

One day we were together near a park late at night. The stars weren't out yet, but if there had been a moon, it would have been out on its own.

I finally decided to ask him a question that had been nagging at me for some time now. "Vegeta," He didn't answer at first, and then he turned to look at me. "Will this be your first child? I mean besides Trunks."

He looked like he wanted to say yes, but he told me the truth instead. "No."

"How many before this one?"

"Just one." He said this flatly, as if he had thus far pushed the thought from his mind.

"What happened to it?" I dreaded the answer, but I had to know.

"It died." He looked away from me.

Goose flesh broke out across my skin. "How?"

He shrugged. "I was too young to have a child, didn't know what I was doing, and it just… died."

"But _how_?" I pressed on.

He was silent for a long time, and for a moment I didn't think he was going to answer. "I was fifteen. She had been born six weeks early, and was less than a pound. That's common with Saiyans during their first rut. The baby is too early and dies, usually killing the parent as well. Anyway, the doctors couldn't save her. She died in my arms."

Troubled by this, I pulled him into my arms. We lay together until the sun began to rise.


	5. Confliction

I touched his stomach again, trying to find any source of life that could be detected.

"Kakorot… it won't grow that fast. It's only been a week." He lounged around the living room watching TV.

Bulma came into the room and I quickly withdrew. "Your so lazy; both of you. Go out and mow the lawn or something."

I didn't even know how to mow the lawn, but she didn't need to know that. "It's too boring outside." I told her, sitting back against the couch.

She glanced to Vegeta. "You haven't trained in a long time. Are you sick or something?"

"No, woman, I'm pregnant and forgot to tell you." He said dryly with a roll of his eyes. "Don't you have womanly things to do? Why don't you go make me a sandwich?"

"Screw you!" She left the room, grumbling.

I gave him a look. "You shouldn't do that, you know."

"Now she can't say I didn't tell her." he justified and then paused. "Will _you_ make me a sandwich?"

I recalled the last time Vegeta had made a sandwich on his own. Bulma had to hire someone to re-tile the floor and re-wallpaper the room.

He sighed. "Fine, I'll make my own damn sandwich." He left the room, and the remote, unguarded.

Grabbing it, I began to channel surf. It was a nice day out, but apparently the aftermath of the rut zapped all the energy from you. Now I and Vegeta both were lazy and slow. We didn't want to do anything but lounge and eat.

On any other day, we might have been sparing, or arguing or something. But not today. Today was just too… slow.

I stopped on a channel that made me really sleepy. It was something about yoga, but the woman was boring and didn't ketch my interest. Pretty soon, I was half asleep.

Vegeta came back and took the remote from my hand. He started to flip the channels so quickly I didn't know how he even knew what he was watching.

I moved closer and curled up beside him. One of my hands draped over his stomach in the process.

To my surprise, he allowed this instead of pushing me away.

My head felt really heavy for some reason. And I wanted a bite of his sandwich, but I couldn't find it with my eyes closed.

I was asleep, but I was awake at the same time. I heard the TV, but it just seemed like background noise to whatever I was dreaming.

I jerked awake suddenly, causing Vegeta to almost drop his empty plate.

"What?" He asked, annoyed.

"I was going up stairs," I said, "And then I fell."

"Did you fall up or down?"

"…Up."

He nodded like that somehow proved something. He went back to watching TV.

He allowed me to push him over until he was lying on the arm of the couch. I lay my head on his chest, listening to his heart.

A moment later we heard foot steps coming down the stairs. I sat up quickly, but Vegeta didn't move.

Trunks came around to stand in front of the TV.

"Dad," he spoke softly.

Vegeta seemed to jump out of his own little world and join us in reality. "Huh?"

"What do I do if my stomach hurts?"

"Tell your mother. She'll fix it."

"But what if…" He paused to shift uncomfortably. "What if it didn't exactly hurt, but felt weird… after I ate."

Vegeta cocked his head at this and sat up. He beckoned for Trunks to step closer to the couch. "Is there something we need to talk about?"

Trunks shook his head. "No, not with me. But maybe… you need to talk to Goten."

I felt a brief moment of panic, but it soon subsided. Vegeta would know what to do. Even if Goten was pregnant, there was no need for panic.

"Tell Goten to come down here." Vegeta said, "Tell him it's important that he talk to his father and I."

Trunks left without a word, and soon returned with Goten.

We all left for the woods, just in case someone was watching or listening in.

Goten looked terrified. "Am I in trouble?"

"No." I told him, but then thought better of it. "Well, if you are, then we're all in trouble."

Vegeta took a seat on the ground and motioned for the rest of us to join him. "Kakorot spawn number 2," He paused. "Goten. Did you sleep with Trunks?"

I wanted to cover my ears. I didn't want to know the details of my son's relationships. Apparently it didn't bother Vegeta at all to talk about it, not even when his son was involved as well.

Goten looked at me, and then his eyes casts to the ground. "Yes." He said quietly. "But only once. And we didn't mean to, you see-"

"I don't care." Vegeta interrupted, "You're fine; Kakorot and I did the same thing."

"Vegeta!" I cried, surprised that he would tell them this so early in the conversation.

He ignored me though. "You, my son, are a little too horny for your own good." This was directed towards Trunks. To hear this from your own father must have been mortifying. "You've mated with both Kakorot spawn number 1 _and _2. What do you have to say for yourself?"

For a moment, Trunks thought he was in trouble, but then he got the hint that his father was joking. "But it was fun."

This time I did cover my ears. "Can we talk about the important part, now? Please?"

"Right, right." Vegeta's face became completely serious again. "Listen to me because I'm only going to explain this once. I understand that you couldn't help it and blah, blah, blah," It was weird hearing him say 'Blah, blah, blah', "But you two could have easily conceived a child."

"Conceived a child?" Trunks asked, rewording what his father had said in his mind. "You mean Goten's… pregnant?"

Vegeta shrugged. "I don't know. He could be."

"That's impossible!" Goten argued. "Boys can't have babies!"

"_Human_ boys can't, but some Saiyan boys can." He paused to think about something. "Did you ever see the movie… uh… Jurassic-something…?"

"Jurassic Park?" I put in.

"Yeah, that. Remember when the doctors had all female dinosaurs? And then a few of them switched from female to male so they could reproduce?"

The boys nodded, a new realization coming to their eyes.

"It's like that, only without the switching part. Saiyan males can only conceive every 15 years, though."

"Why?" Trunks asked.

"Because there are so few female Saiyans. 1 out of 4 Saiyans are female, so there is no way that the population can reproduce fast enough with only 25 of them being female. So to compensate, every 15 years 25 of Saiyan men are able to have children."

"So we just made the cut?" Trunks asked miserably.

Vegeta nodded. "But you have to realize, this can be very dangerous. I know you two are probably not ready to be parents just yet, but that's just too bad. A child is a big responsibility, especially when they're bratty and get on your nerves." He glanced at Trunks for less than a second. "And I don't mean to scare you, but the birth itself could kill you."

"Kill me?" Goten gave him a look of disbelief.

"You're young enough that the birth of a child could literally split you apart from the inside out, especially it there's more than one. There will be blood, and it will hurt."

Goten fell silent.

Trunks decided to change the subject. "What about you? Are one of you pregnant?"

Vegeta's head cocked almost violently to the left.

"Can I touch it?" Trunks asked, trying to make the best of this new threat.

"Get away from me." He said flatly.

"Come on, Vegeta; just let them touch it for a minute."

He didn't allow them to put their hands under his shirt, but he did left them feel his stomach for a while. There wasn't any movement yet, but they seemed content enough to just feel it for a moment.

Trunks then touched Goten's stomach. Nothing there either.

"Should we take him to Piccolo?" I asked.

Vegeta considered this. "No, there's no need. We'll be able to tell soon enough. If there isn't a difference in two weeks, then he's not."

We went our separate ways, Goten and Trunks going off to talk about it more, I supposed.

We lounged around for a while longer in silence. But after so long, I had to tell him something.

"I'm going to tell Chichi. Tonight." I said quietly, already feeling the tears burn at the back of my throat.

He rolled over to look me in the eye. "What for?"

"Maybe you don't care if your wife hates you forever, but I do. I don't want to tell her after everything is done and over. She'll never trust me again."

His head tilted, thinking. "We could get rid of it."

"Of what?"

"The child. We could find a doctor …" He stopped to think about it some more.

Horrified that he would even think of an abortion, I recoiled. "What! Get rid of it! Just because we made a mistake doesn't mean that it should have to suffer! This is a living thing, Vegeta! You can't just take the easy way out and get rid of it!"

"Keep your voice down!" He hissed and pulled me back down onto the couch. "Your going to get us caught!" when I quieted he continued. "I just don't think I can live through it if this one dies as well." Angered, he left the room.

Guilt was a funny thing. It seems to be there even when you think you're mad at the other person. The tears scorched the back of my throat as I thought.

Vegeta wasn't afraid of his wife finding out and hating him. He was afraid that this child would die just like his first one. He was afraid to let this child come, even if it meant killing it himself.

That had the be the worst feeling in the world; loosing one child and then having to relive it all over again without knowing if this time would be different.

I laid down on the couch, my eyes open and unblinking, lost in thought.

It was my fault that he had to relive this nightmare. It was my fault we were in this mess now.

But then another thought came to me. Goten was only 15. He was still a baby and there was the possibility that he could have a baby himself. There was also a possibility that the child would die.

And even if Goten didn't die along with it, what kind of person would he become afterwards? Would he become bitter and depressed, like Vegeta? Or just spiral downwards until we find him hanging in a closet with a belt looped around his neck?

Could the death of his first child be the reason why Vegeta was so mad all the time, why he could never seem to vent his stress? Or was there something deeper to him that he wasn't willing to tell anyone about?

About an hour later, I went to find him, thinking he would be cooled down by then. I found him outside, in a tree. I came to know it as his 'thinking tree', for whenever he was troubled by something, he could always be found in this tree, lying between the highest branches.

I didn't know how he got up there without breaking the limbs; the tree was pretty old; but he did.

I knew if I tried to climb up there with him, the branches would snap and I would probably break my neck. And plus, this was Vegeta's tree, on one was aloud up there besides him anyway.

"Vegeta," I called up to him, not needing to raise my voice. "Come down. I need to talk to you."

"Go away." He crossed his arms and rolled over so his back was towards me. I couldn't help but notice and admire the slight curve his ribs and hips made in contrast to his waist.

"I didn't mean to upset you. Just come down and we'll talk about it."

"I don't want to talk. I want you to leave me alone."

I guess my theory of his being cooled down was wrong. He was one of those people that held grudges for a long time; sometimes years at a time.

I circled the tree until I could see his face again. "I know you're scared, and you don't want to risk loosing this one, but I can't let you kill it. Just think about it; if you get an abortion, then you'll have to spend the rest of your life never knowing if that one would have made it. Never know what kind of person it would have become. Do you see?"

"Kakorot," His voice was on the verge of breaking. "You don't seem to get it. There was no such thing as abortions when I was young. They had never been heard of, or even thought of. If I'd had the option back then, I would have terminated that one as well."

"No you wouldn't have. You would have had it and let it die in your arms even if you knew it didn't stand a chance. You loved it. Just like you love Trunks, and just like you're going to love this one too. You won't kill it; you can't bring yourself to do it."

That statement must have terrified him, but someone had to make him see. He seemed so put together when it came to this rut business, but in actuality, he was the most insecure of all of us.

He came down and embraced me, crushing himself against me, fearing to let go. He might have been crying, but he made no sound and would not let me look at his face.

"I'm tired, Kakorot." He said, and then eventually, "I'm…afraid."

"I know. But you don't have to do it alone, you know." I paused. "I'm going to tell Chichi. Do you want me to tell Bulma too?"

He shook his head but did not pull away from my chest. "I'll tell her."


	6. Confession

I swallowed the lump in my throat. My objectives had been thrown into the wind; drown in the river.

I stepped into our small kitchen where so many memories had taken place. The majority of those memories, I realized, did not include me.

I had spent my entire life trying to get away from everything; trying to keep myself from admitting that I had something that I didn't want to loose. Pretending that everything was perfect in my world of glass.

She was sitting at the table, reading a book and drinking coffee.

I watched her for a long time, reluctant to let the moment end.

"Chichi," My voice broke. I had to clear my throat before I could continue.

She looked up at me, and at once knew something was terribly wrong. "Yes?"

"I…" I could not continue. A sob tore from my throat. I fell to my knees. "Forgive me- I've ruined everything."

She was on her feet. "Goku? What's wrong?" She knelt before me, placing her hands on my back.

"I've done something unforgivable." I fell apart. I wasn't even listening to what I was saying anymore. I was trying to sort out what I was going to say before I said them but the words were coming out of my mouth so quickly I had to opt for thinking while I was talking.

I can't recall exactly what I said, but eventually I got to the point. Tears and sobs mingling, I finally could tell her. "I had an affair,"

She backed away from me quickly. "What?"

I looked up at her, tears falling down my face freely, uninterrupted.

"You had an…? After all the time we've been in love? After all the memories we made together?" She started at me blankly, in shock.

That look was the worst part of it. She seemed lost in her own thoughts.

Then, she broke.

"How could you do this!" She screamed shrilly. "How could you tear us apart like this!" she began sobbing while she screamed. She tore things from the shelves and hurled them across the room. Most of them shattered when they came in contact with the wall, sending thousands of pieces of ceramic onto the floor.

My heart lurched and I felt sick.

"How could you do this…?" She calmed and fell to the floor. She rested her head on her arms and turned away so she wouldn't have to look at me.

Silence fallowed. What could I do? An apology would not have been enough.

"I suspected that you had been cheating on me, but I didn't think that you would tell me so openly." That statement made me wince. "…Who is she?" She eventually asked.

I hesitated. I hadn't expected her to want to know who I had been with. "…It was not a woman."

"Not a woman?" She shuttered, curling up into a ball on the floor. "Are you a faggot?"

That hurt more than I thought it would. To hear something like that from the person you thought you loved for so long was betrayal of the worst kind. Maybe she had not been my true love after all.

"Who was it?" She asked, allowing me to disregard her former question.

"Vegeta." I said proudly. I would not be ashamed just because he was a man.

"Vegeta?" She rolled and looked me right in the eye. "You fucked _him_? Who knows where he's been?"

I didn't understand her statement.

"The man has been out in space for most of his life. You don't know who or what he's fucked before you or what he could give you other than a little fun."

"What are you saying?"

"Do you pay him for his services?"

I got to my feet. I went for her, grabbed her to her feet and pressed her again the wall by her collar. "Don't you talk about him like that, _ever_. A whore is someone who uses people for personal gain. I've found someone who wants something other than just a husband. If you can't except that, that's fine, I don't care; but if you want to rightfully call someone a whore, you might want to look in the mirror first."

She gave me a look of disbelief. "Let go of me." I did so and she straightened her clothes. "Get out. I don't ever want to see you again."

I left with a single glance of foreboding towards her.

On my way out, Goten stopped me. "Is that it? You two are done?"

I nodded. I could not speak; for the tears would surly begin to fall.

"You're not even going to try? You're not even going to tell her you're sorry? That you love her?"

The tears did fall, but they were hot, angry tears. "Sometimes things don't work out the way you want them to. Sometimes you realize the person you thought you loved was just a person you where afraid to admit existed."

I blinked away the tears at the memory.

"She called me a whore?" He asked, crossing his arms. "Me? But I'm so cute and adorable. How could she call me a whore?"

Vegeta was such a fascinating person. He could find reason to be angered at such petty things, and then find humor in places where there shouldn't be.

"She also asked if I was a faggot."

He shrugged. "I don't know the word."

I then realized that English was not his first language. There were still some words he didn't know. The word 'faggot' meant nothing to him; it was merely a string of syllables.

"It's a derogatory word for homosexual."

He still did not understand.

"On earth, it's meant as an insult."

He rolled over onto his back. "I'll have to remember that the next time I'm arguing with someone. Does it work to describe women too?"

"Not usually, but you can use it if you want to." I placed my hand over his stomach.

By now, a few weeks after my little spat with Chichi, Vegeta had begun to show. His stomach was rounder, and it had almost lost its washboard form completely. Nothing moved just yet, but it was obvious that something soon would.

"I saw the boys the other day." Vegeta said all of a sudden.

"Could you tell yet? Is he…?"

"I don't know."

I lay back on the bed, my arm behind my head. "What do you think its going to be?"

He shrugged. "Most likely a boy." He felt his stomach. "This one will be a boy."

I rolled my eyes. He'd been saying that for a week now. He really wanted a boy, I think. He probably didn't want to have to deal with a girl.

Vegeta had told Bulma too. She had kicked him out, but then figured he would need a place to stay, at least until the baby was born. She let us have a capsule home, which we set up in a valley near a stream.

Goten and Trunks weren't kicked out, though, mostly because they where still babies themselves. Chichi seemed sort of… happy about Trunks and Goten's supposed baby.

They didn't seem to understand what this could do to both Trunks and Goten, but I didn't want to shatter their perfect world just yet.

Bulma had Goten stay at Capsule corp. so he could be with Trunks and so that she could observe him. She seemed fascinated with the thought of a baby growing inside of a man for a change.

"I need those fish cracker things." Vegeta announced.

"Goldfish?"

"Yes."

Over the past week he had developed some of the strangest cravings. Vanilla ice cream with cut up hotdogs on top, liquorish and vinegar, and a few other things. But mostly he ate goldfish. He always got the pizza flavored ones because he knew I wouldn't eat them because they were gross.

"You have to eat vegetables too, you know."

"Do they have vegetable flavored fish cracker things?"

"I don't think so…"

He shrugged. "Whatever, I wouldn't eat them anyway."

He left the room for the kitchen.

I got up and pulled a shirt on over my chest. It was sort of cold in here, even with the heat on. The only time I really felt warm was when Vegeta and I lay in bed together. When we were apart I felt venerable, even though I was the one who was supposed to be protecting him now.

I found myself in the room next to the bathroom. It was more like a guest room; Bulma had added it, thinking we would be sleeping in separate rooms; but there was nothing in it.

Eventually we would put a crib in this room. Maybe paint it a nice color, like blue or pink, depending on what it is. Hang up some curtains. This empty emotionless room would look nice with a baby to decorate it, I think.

I mentally laughed. A baby to decorate it. That's so horrible to say.

I sat down on the floor and leaned back. Sometimes the silence was good; but most of the time the silence brought back memories better left at the back of the mind.

"Kakorot!" Vegeta cried, pulling me out of my own memories.

I blinked. "Yeah?"

"We're all out of fish cracker things." He announced and showed me the empty bag. "This is a dark day."

I laughed at this, but his expression did not change. "I'll run out and get you some more, okay?"

He didn't respond.

I got to my feet. "Something wrong?"

He shook his head.

I stepped closer to him and placed my hands on his hips. I kissed his forehead. "Everything is going to be alright."

He continued to stare of into space, an emptiness in his eyes that seemed unbearable to look at.

I kissed his lips, which he responded to after a few moments. When he pulled away to speak I continued down his neck. "What if this one is sick, Kakorot? Or if it has something wrong with it?"

"Do you want to ask Bulma to look at it?" I said in-between kisses.

He seemed to think this over, his head tilting to the side unconsciously.

"If you see it, then maybe you won't worry as much."

This seemed to convince him. "Alright. But you have to ask her."

I didn't think I was Bulma's favorite person at the moment. She had told Vegeta that she hated me and that I had torn their family apart. I winced at that thought.

My hands traveled from his narrow hips to his waist, where I rubbed his stomach carefully.

"Kakorot?"

"Okay, I'll ask her."

He pushed my hands away gently and meant to leave the room.

I spun him around and grabbed his ass, pinning him up against the wall about a foot off the ground.

"What are you doing?" He asked with a gasp of surprise.

I pulled his pants off halfway, shifted so I could hold him better, and then pulled them off all the way.

"Kakorot, let go! We can do this in the bedroom, but I refuse to do it here!"

I crushed our lips together.

He grabbed onto me when I let one hand drop from underneath him, thinking I would let him fall.

He did not kiss me back at first, still trying to get me off of him. Eventually he did comply though, finding no use in fighting me.

I pulled away, a string of saliva connecting us both still. I licked my fingers. He stared at me, face completely blank.

When my hand left my mouth and disappeared from his line of vision his eyes grew narrow. "Don't," He warned.

I tilted my head and taped his entrance lightly.

"Kakorot," His teeth were beginning to bear.

I slipped two fingers inside him and pressed towards me.

He was mad now; infuriated. He hated when I did this to him, which only encouraged me to do it as often as I could.

I didn't know if the feeling of fingers inside you felt good, but from Vegeta's reaction, I was led to believe it felt like an invasion.

Muscle contracted around my fingers, trying to get me out. I slipped another finger inside him.

He groaned with what could have been annoyance or pleasure.

"Purr for me," I whispered in his ear.

I liked it when he purred; it was somehow sexy; but he rarely did it anymore, not since that first time we had made love.

"No." He spat and pushed against me. When I didn't move, he optioned to negotiate. "I will if you get off me."

"Do it and I'll let you go."

He hissed animalisticly. "Bastard," he hit me across the face hard enough to shatter bone.

I had no time to reach. I sprawled backwards and crashed onto the floor. Exploding pain throbbed around my eye.

He was on his feet already, watching.

You would think I would have learned after the first time he had 'defended himself', back in the bathroom at Capsule corp. He had bitten me then because I wouldn't let him go. This time was much worst.

"What have we learned?" He asked.

A string of insults came to mind, but I did not say anything. I glared at him.

He picked up his pants and put them back on. He sat before me and stared into my eyes for a while. Then, a moment later, he did purr for me.

It was a beautiful sound; like a cat, but much deeper. His chest expanded quickly, as if he were out of breath.

"I'm sorry I tried to molest you." I said quietly.

"_Tried_?" He said, but made no more comments on the subject. "I'm sorry I hit you in the face." He muttered.

"What?" I asked.

He snorted, frowning. "You heard me."

"What was that? I didn't really hear you, can you say it again?"

"Can you find a whore to fuck?" He stood and began to walk away.

"I don't need to go out and find one." He said jokingly.

"Then why don't you ever pay me? I'm very expensive, Kakorot. If you want to lie with me, your going to be broke by tomorrow."

He was cocky even when he was talking about whoring himself out.

I followed after him into the kitchen. "Vegeta, how do you say 'my difficult sex toy' in Saiyan?"

He gave me a look. "Why?"

"You need a nick-name."

"I'm not difficult!" it was odd that he chose that to defend. "In common or high-speech?"

"Um… I don't know. Which is easier to speak?"

He shrugged. "They're the same."

"High speech."

"_Anun le uanglen mate-yun._"


	7. A Needed Distraction

When I woke that morning it was cold. Even the thick blankets could not keep me warm enough. It was then I realized Vegeta was gone.

I got up, something within me driven to find him.

He wasn't in the house; that much I knew, or else I would have felt him.

He wasn't anywhere near the house for that matter.

I followed his trail for a long while, before I finally realized exactly where I was. I was in the back yard of Capsule corp.

Why had he come here?

I went to the back door and knocked.

Goten answered the door. His face lit up when he saw me. He embraced me for a moment.

"Vegeta's here." He whispered in me ear. "He's with Bulma in the basement. We're not allowed to go down there."

He led me to the basement door. I nodded and he left. I opened the door and slid inside.

It was dark, like some kind of horror movie. There were a lot of stairs too; with cobwebs that brushed against me, giving me goose bumps.

I came to the bottom of the stairs and opened the door to the next room.

I found Bulma sitting in a chair at her desk. Vegeta was leaning against the wall.

She turned to see who it was, ready to yell if it had been one of the boys. "Hello." She said coldly, before turning back to her computer.

I could almost taste the bitterness she radiated.

Vegeta came over to me but did not touch me. "She said it's too early to tell if it's alright."

I didn't understand what he was talking about at first, but then it clicked. "You did the ultrasound?" I asked, more to Bulma than Vegeta.

He nodded though.

"Thank you." I said to Bulma. She waved me off.

"I hope you two are happy together." Her voice was so void of emotion, so distant. It broke my heart all over again to know it was my fault. I had made love to Vegeta for the first time, right here in her house, while she was just in the other room.

I felt guilt swell in my chest right then. I doubted it would every go away. I could feel that Vegeta felt guilty too, but he understood that there was nothing he could say to fix it. He didn't know that she at least wanted him to try.

"Bulma," I started, and then paused, "We didn't mean for this to happen."

"I know." She responded distractedly, typing away at her computer.

"Vegeta still loves you. I still love you." I glanced at Vegeta. His expression did not change. He was thinking. "And I know… and I know it's my fault things are the way they are."

She had stopped typing.

"And I wanted to say that I'm sorry."

Silence for several moments. Those moments nearly killed me. I didn't know if she was going to explode or slip deeper into her depression.

"Do you have anything to say, Vegeta?" She asked without turning around.

At first I didn't think he would say anything, but then he surprised me. "I don't expect you to understand, but this changes nothing between us. I do still love you, and I'd still like to be considered your husband." He raked his fingers through his hair. "I'd like us to be a family."

She was sobbing. He flinched at this when she turned around. He didn't know how to handle it.

"Your right. I don't understand. And you don't seem to understand what you've done." She did not bother to wipe he tears; they fell freely from her face. "We can't be a family anymore. Not a good one anyway. But I won't let my child grow up without a father."

She stared at him for a long time, tears falling to the ground. "You don't even care. Whenever things get too emotional, you shut down. You can't handle anything that you're not in complete control of."

She was wrong about him. He was far more capable than she thought.

"You have been pushing us away since the beginning. You create walls so that no one can get in, and then you detach yourself before you get hurt. Well guess what? You're going to have to deal with this. And don't just stare at me. You know exactly what I'm talking about."

She seemed to be finished. She gave him some time to let that all sink in.

When he gave her a shrug and said absolutely nothing, she glared at him.

"I hate you."

The words sounded harsh to me, and she wasn't even talking to me.

We left, giving a wave to the boys as we did so.

Outside, I meant to console him. "She didn't mean it, you know."

He nodded. "Yeah, I know. She says it so often it doesn't really mean anything anymore." He paused. "She used to."

I needed for him to react somehow. Through this whole thing, it was like he wasn't even there. Either he was trying to numb himself to it, or he really didn't care. Maybe he didn't understand that he may never have his family back to the way it was.

I decided to change the subject for a moment.

"Did you happen to hear anything about Goten?"

He frowned a little, trying to remember. He had an amazing memory, far surpassing mine. He seemed to remember some things without even realizing it, and he could recall nearly everything he remembered in an instant.

"His sent hadn't chanced. I don't think so. But, it's too early to tell, Kakorot."

I was hungry, starving even. There was no food in the house; we had eaten it all in a matter of weeks.

I didn't want to go home and beg for food, and I didn't have the money to buy enough for even a full meal. I asked Vegeta what we should do.

He seemed moodier lately. Most of the day, he just lay around, sleeping or thinking. Even when we made love, he seemed overly frustrated.

"I'm not hungry." He said. He had not been hungry at all in the past few days. He did eat though, but only small portions at a time. I told him he needed to eat, for the baby's sake.

He sat up on the couch, stretched. "Then go hunting."

I had never actually 'gone hunting'. I had gone fishing thousands of times, but never the 'stalk and kill' approach Vegeta was accustomed to.

I had been hunting with him once, when he had a craving for not-burnt meat. He had taken down a boar by biting its neck until it bled to death. The entire thing had been kind of traumatic to me, especially when he began to eat the thing raw; fur and all. He did not share, would not share, even if I had asked him for a bite.

I remembered how the thing had writhed beneath him; had cried in agony. I shuttered. I could not bring myself to kill an animal like that.

I asked him if instead he wanted fish. He was not really a 'fish-person'. He liked huge chunks of meat that he could tear through without having to worry about swallowing a bone. But he would eat nearly anything; except oranges. I don't know what his problem was, but he just would not eat oranges.

I went fishing anyway, and came back with enough to feed us for dinner, and maybe a snack later.

I had a craving for fish-sticks, but I couldn't remember how to make them. I just fried it all instead.

While we were eating, Vegeta said he wished we had a television. I never really had much interest in television. There was never anything on, and I always had the feeling there was someone out there watching us through it.

"Hey," I said, the subject about TV having been dropped a long time ago, "Once the baby's born, we should get a dog or something."

"Yeah," Vegeta said, surprising me, "And then later, we can eat it."

I didn't know if he was kidding, I can never really tell, so I took it as a joke. "I'm serious; come on, pets are good for kids."

"Pets carry the plague."

I rolled my eyes. "They do not. Pets make it easier for kids to socialize."

"And so does television. I think that once the kid is born, we should get a TV so that it can raise it as its own."

"You can't be raised by a TV."

"Trunks was, and look how he turned out."

Even though Vegeta seemed like a pretty bad father to most, he was actually not that bad. He just didn't know how to hand human-like kids, I think. From what I understand, Saiyan babies were very different from human-babies.

Vegeta stretched.

I stood up and began to clear away the dishes.

"Let's go to bed."

"It's four' o'clock." I said without turning around. "I'm not tired yet."

When I did turn around he was right behind me. Startled, I took a half-step back. He placed his hand onto my neck, pulling me closer to him. He rested his head at the crook of my neck and began to whisper in my ear. I didn't understand any of what he said; he was speaking Saiyan.

His arms came to encircle my waist. He began to purr with the words, his body coming to arch up against mine.

I found my hands coming to grasp his slender hips. Even though I didn't know what he was saying, his voice was deep and husky; unbelievably sexy.

My hands dropped to his ass, where I got a firm grip, before lifting him up off his feet. He did not react, as if he had expected it.

I carried him off to the bedroom, not bothering to shut the door.

His sent was intoxicating. It seemed to have drifted all over the room already, before I even had the chance to undress him.

He was not really a kisser; he was more of a 'feel you up' kind of person. But he did allow me to kiss him whenever I wanted; if only to keep me quiet.

I had my tongue in his mouth already, tasting him, trying to coax him. There was a lot of coaxing involved when it came to Vegeta. He was unsure at times, and would fight me for more space if he felt claustrophobic.

He was very high-maintenance as well, and would often bite during sex if he felt neglected. Even if it was his idea, he demanded my complete attention, or he would get a little aggressive.

As long as I didn't crush him beneath me, or stick my fingers anywhere they didn't belong, he was usually alright with whatever I wanted to do.

I pinned him down with one arm, just in case he was in a biting mood. I kissed down his neck, over his shoulders, down his chest. I nipped at his abdomen, which had swollen just slightly.

He tried to sit up, but I held him down firmly. That might have agitated him, but he didn't really react.

I pulled at his pants, which slipped off easily. He hardly ever wore underwear; he didn't see a real need for them; so it was 'easy access' 24/7.

I began to undress myself, having to lean off him in order to all my clothes off.

He sat up at once and bit my chest. He never drew blood, but it did sting a little. I pressed him back down to the bed, holding down his chest with my knee.

When I had gotten my shirt off and pants nearly off, I lay back down next to him.

I kicked off my shoes, letting my pants fall off the side of the bed. His thighs came to rest on either sides of my hips, trying to draw me into him.

I pulled back, forcing him to release me, or risk us both falling off the bed. I grabbed his hips and flipped him onto his stomach. I loved the way his ass looked when he laid on his stomach. It became perfectly round, and I could see his birthmark easily.

He was trying to turn to look at me. I could feel that he was getting stressed. He knew what was to come.

I lifted him slightly and immediately pressed two fingers inside of him. I had no time to wet them, for he would have surly stopped me.

This was the best part of sex; when he was completely submissive. I know it sounds cruel, but there is a part of me that craves complete control, even if it meant hurting him a little.

He had gone rigid, like a cat when you pick them up by the scruff of their neck. Then he kicked me, striking my hip; just missing my goods. It was not a hard kick, he could not kick very hard in this awkward of a position; but it had meant to be.

"Kakorot," He pleaded, but in a scolding tone. Soon he would not be able to take anymore. He would then lie still in the hope that I would withdraw.

As my fingers moved in and out of him, he twisted sharply. He kicked a few more times, before he eventually gave up. I had the feeling that he did sort of like it, but mostly he did not. I think he would miss it if I were to discontinue.

I nipped his perfect apple bottom with my teeth. The stillness what not as much fun as when he fought me, but it was still pretty enjoyable. I could feel his heartbeat through my fingers. It was not rapid, but more like he had forced himself to stay calm.

I withdrew, and he instantly relaxed. I flipped him back over before he had the chance to do it himself. He looked at me expectantly.

I could not think of anything more than burring myself within him. I was getting ready to when he did the most adorable thing ever. He sneezed. But it wasn't a loud unattractive sneeze; it was more like a quick exhale of air, along with a tight squeezing of his eyes and the slight shaking of his head.

I stared at him for a long time, and then burst into laughter. He did not say anything in his defense. He simply waited for me to finish.

"What was that?" I finally managed to choke out.

He didn't answer to this. "Are you done?"

"That was a very manly sneeze, Vegeta." I said, trying to keep a strait face.

He rolled his eyes. He began to untangle himself from me.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry; I take it back. It was an adorable sneeze."

This seemed to agitate him further.

I pinned him back down to the bed. He did not fight me, as I knew he wouldn't, because he was just as willing to finish as I was.

He was still annoyed with me up until I entered him. Then he was too distracted to care anymore.

I began to move immediately at a slow, steady pace.

He growled after a few minutes and bit my neck. He wanted me to hurry up, but we both knew I wasn't going to until I wanted to.

He pressed against me hard, legs pulling at me every time I pressed forward. Nails dug into my back, teeth nipped at anything within reach.

I sped up, unable to continue smoothly. I braced myself on either side of his head, continuing to roll my hips against his.

My breath came out in short gasps as I neared finishing, partially forgetting to breath.

By now we were slamming into each other as bone-crush speeds, it seemed, and still we both wanted more.

I whined, almost coming, but then managing to hold back a little longer. A full half a minute later, we came at the same time. The feeling was like non I could explain. We fit together perfectly, even though we were of the same sex.

I wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with this man, and have this baby. I didn't want to go back to my wife. I didn't want Vegeta to go back to his. I didn't want us to ever be apart again, even if it meant dying together.

If something where to happen to him, I knew the sorrow alone would kill me.

I pulled out gently and rolled off him. He was panting, as was I.

"I love you." I said to him, expecting the same back.

He hesitated for a moment, which scared me. "I love you too, Kakorot." This statement did not put me at ease. I knot filled my stomach. Was he unsure if he loved me?

I sat up. "What was that?"

He looked at me, unaware of what he had done. "I said I love you."

"No, you hesitated. Why did you hesitate?"

"I didn't hesitate."

"Vegeta, I was there. It just happened three seconds ago."

"I didn't hesitate." He insisted.

I didn't feel like arguing with him. I lay back down and fell asleep. I would deal with the issue later.


	8. Unintentional Breech

Nearly a week passed before Vegeta would go back for a second ultrasound. He was not particularly interested in what the sex of the child was, but more so how many there would be.

I had the feeling that we were going to have more than one, because his stomach had grown substantially by now. He had probably put on twenty pounds in just a week.

This time I was awake to go with him. Bulma had agreed to do the ultrasound, mostly out of curiosity. But she said this would be the last one she would do for us.

In the medical wing of Capsule corp., deep under the main building, Vegeta lay on his back (as I had been so used to seeing him on most nights).

As Bulma did the ultrasound, an awkward silence arose. Unable to stand it, I started up some small talk. "Uh… so… how are you?"

"Fine." She answered shortly.

I could feel Vegeta's anxiety rise.

I finally thought of something else to say. "How're Goten and Trunks?"

She didn't answer at first, distracted by the screen. "Comparing him to Vegeta, I would say he's not pregnant."

Those words filled me with such relief. There was so much less I had to worry about now. "You're sure?" I asked shakily. It would be terrible to find out that she was wrong.

"Yes, I'm sure. He's around here somewhere, if you want to see him. He'll be going back to live with Chi-chi soon-" She stopped short of her sentence. She leaned in close to the screen.

"What?" Vegeta asked, his head jerking towards her nervously.

She began to count. "I see… four heartbeats."

"Four heartbeats?" I asked dumbly.

"Look for yourselves." She turned the screen around.

The picture was in black and white, and very fuzzy, but there were spots of pulsing black scattered throughout the screen. Two rested at the side of the screen, while one was up farther near Vegeta's own heart. The last rested low by his hips.

"Four…?" I asked my mouth nearly falling open.

Vegeta raked one hand through his hair.

The initial relief for Goten I had previously felt had now been replaced by sheer panic. How were we going to care for four tiny babies? How where were going to survive with six fully-blooded Saiyans in the house? What were going to do?

It would have been bad enough if there had been twins, which I had been largely prepared for, but quadruplets?

I put my head in my hands to think.

Vegeta sat up and ventured over to me. He sighed.

That one night of fun had become the bane of my existence. I was going to be paying for it for a long time.

I suddenly wanted nothing to do with these children. I wanted to leave and never come back.

But I would never be able to bring myself to leave. I had started a family, and like it or not, I was going to have to step up and deal with them.

Even though I knew these children would be the death of us both, I was not going to let Vegeta know that.

"I guess we have a few more than we thought." I gave him a lopsided grin, which he did not return. His face did not twist into a scowl or a sneer, but more like a look of saddened agreement.

Bulma continued to look at the pictures she had taken. "There is at least one boy. The other three are too cloudy for me to tell. The one up in the corner might me a boy too, but I'm not sure."

So we had at least one boy. And if the other three were girls, we were sure to be broke by the time they hit sixteen.

I took a shakily breath. "Okay. Thank you, Bulma. We appreciate it."

Vegeta glanced at her. They had a moment where their eyes met. I could see the unbelievable sadness in hers, and the numbness in his. They each wanted the other still, but could not bring themselves to say so.

I did not want to accept that I was responsible for their separation, and I did not want to let Vegeta go back to her.

I had never loved anyone this much. Even when I had still been with Chi-chi, I had never loved her like I love him. Even if he was hesitant to love me back, I could live with that, as long as we could be together.

Sometime I wished I knew just how he was feeling, what he was thinking. Sometimes I wished he was easier to read.

We left Capsule corp., unable to find Goten or Trunks. I was no longer eager to see them anyway, now that I had a brand new thing to deal with.

We reached the house, but did not go inside. There was a long silence.

We were both thinking.

"So… are you hungry?" I asked.

That night, Vegeta and I lay together, asleep. I was awoken by a screech on the window. I half-rolled to see what it was. When I discovered it was just a tree branch, and went back to Vegeta's side to fall back asleep.

Vegeta rolled away from me, and sat up quickly.

"Kakorot," his voice was strained, almost like he was scared.

I sat up on my elbows. "What's wrong?"

He looked at me in the dark. I couldn't see his expression clearly, but he seemed upset. "We can't care for four children."

"I know it's not going to be easy, but we're going to be fine."

His breath was coming out in short almost sob-like gasps. "How are we going to feed them? Do you have any idea how much food a growing Saiyan needs?"

He was talking very fast, his sentences coming out all jumbled.

"I know that you're worried, but you have to relax. It's going to be all right,"

He was hyperventilating. "Kakorot, we _can not_ do this. It's going to be impossible," he went off into a tangent of Saiyan, speaking even faster.

I didn't react until I realized he was having a panic attack. "Vegeta, breathe," I said gently.

He got out of bed, the silhouette of his round little belly reflecting the night starlight.

"They're going to die," He said in between the words he said in other languages.

I stood up as well to catch him just in case he freak out completely.

"Don't," He said and stepped back. His chest was heaving violently, "I can't breath."

I grabbed his shoulders in time to stop him from hitting the floor. I carried him back to the bed and lay him down on his back.

"Shhh…. Breathe… relax."

His chest slowed it's heaving until it moved at a normal rhythm.

"Are you okay?"

He nodded, his muscles relaxing.

I didn't know if he'd ever done that before. I knew he would often wake up and be in a state of complete terrified shock, but I had never seen him overreact like this while he was awake.

I went to get him some water, but he wouldn't let me leave the room.

So I lay back down with him.

"Has that every happened before?" I asked him.

"When I was younger it used to happen a lot. I didn't have them as often once I left Freeza's ship."

It was dead silent after that. I didn't know what to say, and I didn't want to say anything stupid.

I placed my hand over his stomach. It was firm, stretched. I traced his cute little bellybutton.

"We should think of names for them."

"Vegeta Jr."

I cocked an eyebrow. "That's… great… but there are four of them."

"How about we just give the rest of them numbers?

I rubbed my face. "No."

"Prince Michael Jackson?"

"_No_."

He looked around the room. "Chair… Window… Bed… Door. There, done."

"You're not even trying."

"How about we wait until their born so we know how many boys we have and how many girls."

I sighed. "Okay, fine." I really wanted to think of names now, but I could wait a few more months.

Sleep came soon after.

I woke up with the worst head-ache I ever had. It was like having a million brain freezes one after another.

I lay in bed all day, uninterested in getting up; not even to shower.

Vegeta had been awake for hours, busying himself around the house. He was apparently in the nesting stage of his pregnancy. He kept moving things all around the house; it was almost like an obsession.

He had changed the position of the bed twice already; he didn't even bother to tell me to get off it first.

I was afraid to leave the room; fearing that he would make me do something.

I rolled over, glancing at the clock. It was noon already. I had never slept in this late.

I decided that, head-ache or not, I was going to get up and see if I could help him, even if I didn't want to.

I shook my head so my hair would retain its shape. Then I left the room, pulling on my pants and a T-shirt as I went.

I hadn't realized how hungry I was until I reached the kitchen. I noticed that the oven was missing.

I asked Vegeta what happened to it.

"It was dirty, and I couldn't get it clean. So I threw it outside because it pissed me off."

I looked outside, and sure enough, there it sat on its side, all lonesome.

I sighed and put the oven back inside. I told him just because it wouldn't get clean doesn't mean he can punish it by throwing it outside.

It took me a long time to get the oven working again, mostly because I didn't know what I was doing. I thought it was going to explode before I could get it.

When I could finally make some food, I had no interest to even use the oven any more. I made myself some toast and cereal instead.

I found Vegeta asleep on the couch, one arm strung over his eyes to keep out the sun.

I took up a seat on the floor, shoveling cereal into my mouth as I watched him sleep.

After a few moments he muttered something in his sleep.

"What?" I asked.

He repeated it. It was not in any language I had heard.

I simply stared at him.

"Un di mallon, gi alla; It means 'Stop staring at me, you pervert'." He said clearly.

"How long have you been awake?"

He shrugged. "I was awake long enough to hear you stuffing that into your mouth."

I hadn't realized I was that loud.

His arm dropped from his face. He had a beautiful face; perfect eyebrows, high cheek-bones, an angular jaw, almond-shaped obsidian eyes. If he were taller, he could easily be a model.

One of the things I liked about him was that even though he was cocky, he was largely unaware of how gorgeous he really was.

"I'm bored." He said finally, trying to draw my attention away from staring at him. "And my stomach hurts."

I stuffed the rest of my toast into my mouth and swallowed. "Like what kind of a hurt?"

He shrugged. "I don't know; like I swallowed something sharp and it's cutting me."

"_Did_ you swallow something sharp?" I found that to be an honest question, but he rolled his eyes with sarcasm.

"Yeah, I swallowed a bunch of needles while you were asleep." He stretched one leg off the side of the couch; the other he bent at the knee. Then he tried lying on his side.

"Do you want some Advil?" I asked, getting up to put my dishes in the sink.

"No," He began to say. He curled sharply, arms encircling his stomach. "Ahhh…"

I looked back into the living room in time to see him roll off the couch and onto the floor.

I hurriedly went to him, kneeling at his side.

He was screaming, becoming louder.

"What's going on?" I asked him.

"I don't know," He spat in between groans of agony, "I think it's a breech," There was fear in his voice, unmasked.

I wasn't sure what 'Breech' meant to him. I asked him to elaborate.

"A…" He couldn't think for a word to describe it. "What do you call it when it dies?"

I thought about it. "A miscarriage?"

He grit his teeth. "I don't know the word. We need to get to Bulma."

I nodded. I scooped him up into my arms, carrying him out the door. There was panic everywhere it seemed; the air itself seemed to go around us if only to hasten our trek to Bulma's.

I could feel my heart pulsing in my ears. Fear like none I had experienced overwhelmed me. The thought that we could loose all of the children inside him all at once seemed unbearable.

I wasn't sure how I had managed to get inside the house, but I had. I went to the basement, expecting to find Bulma there. She wasn't.

Hesitant leave Vegeta on his own, I called to her. Eventually, I had no choice but to leave him in the basement and go look for her.

I looked al around the house for what seemed hours, but ended up being about ten minutes. She finally pulled into the driveway.

She began calling to Trunks to come help her carry in the groceries.

Before she could do anything, I grabbed her and took her to the basement. When we arrived there, we found Vegeta sitting in a pool of blood.


	9. Count The Losses

He seemed unconscious. He lay on his back; arms lying limp at his sides. The pool of crimson red had collected all around him.

Bulma and I both had a moment where we froze, unable to will ourselves to do anything.

A second or two later, Bulma snapped out of it. "Lift him onto the bed."

I did as she commanded, still in shock.

The first thing she did was take off his pants.

I couldn't bring myself to look, but she said there was an extra opening. She assumed it was where the babies would come out.

There was blood everywhere. And it was hot, it seemed. My face was covered with sweat, my palms sliding against each other freely.

Bulma did a third ultrasound, going back on her word that she would not do another.

As she counted the hearts, I held my breath. If the hearts were not pulsing, then that meant they were dead.

The thought of it was unbearable.

"I see three." She said eventually in a distant tone of voice.

"Three?" I was confused. "You said four before."

She shook her head. "There are only three now."

It took a moment for this news to sink in. There were four… and now there are three…

Vegeta awoke minutes later with a start. "What happened?"

My head was in my hands as I sat in the very chair I had when I had received the news of the initial four. "There are three." I said solemnly.

"What are three?" He was avoiding the answer. He knew what I was talking about, but he did not want to accept it.

"We lost one." I told him.

He stared at me in disbelieve. He demanded to see the pictures.

Bulma turned the screen to him. There were indeed three beating hearts. The one that had been resting under his own heart beat no more.

With a shaky hand, he pointed to each one, counting. He counted four times before he would even bring himself to say it.

"It's dead?" He asked.

Bulma nodded. "I'm sorry Vegeta."

"Can you bring it back?" he asked, aware that his request was impossible, but unable to stop himself from asking.

"No, I'm sorry." She said again. "There's nothing I can do."

He still did not want to believe her. "How can this happen? I'm older now; this can't happen now."

"Vegeta," I said gently. "It's gone."

He shook his head. "It's not 'gone', Kakorot."

I stood up to hold him. "It is gone."

"It's not gone." He insisted, allowing me to hug him.

I rested my chin on his head, tears falling from my eyes.

He was so sure that it was not gone. He was so sure that Bulma and I were deceiving him.

At the start of all this, he had not wanted to keep them; he had wanted to terminate them himself. But now, he was unable to even fathom that one of them had died before it even had a chance to live.

Before now, the thought of creating a baby had seemed unreal, like some kind of elaborate dream. But now that one was dead, I realized this was life. There was life inside him, which we had created together. They had lived, and eventually, they all would die; but they were life.

I broke down into a series of sobs. Vegeta stared blankly ahead of him, unmoved.

Bulma organized surgery to remove the lost infant. It had been a boy, as the doctors had told me.

I named it Urain, which meant 'From Heaven'.

Vegeta seemed to have sunken into a deep depression. He had not left the bed since the surgery.

I had to force feed him on most days, and put supplements in his food so he would get all the nurturance he needed.

I sat next to the bed, trying to think of a way to get him to get up.

He lay on his side with the blanket pulled over his head. "I don't want them anymore." He said after a long while of silence.

I didn't respond at first. "You don't want them?"

"I don't want to have these children, Kakorot. I don't want to do anything ever again."

"Vegeta, you don't mean that."

"Yes I do. I just want to lay here until I die."

"You don't mean that either. You don't want to die."

"How do you know?"

"Because you want these children just as much as I do. Don't you want to see them grow up? Don't you want to teach them everything they need to know about life? Don't you want to see them get married and start their own families?"

He did not answer.

"Don't you want to be a family?"

He pulled the cover off his head. His eyes were swollen from crying. "I don't want to feel like this anymore."

My heart broke for him, but there was little else I could do.

I left the room, deciding to seek outside help.

I could not think of anyone besides Bulma that could help. I didn't really want to ask my lover's soon-to-be ex-wife for more help, but I had no other option it seemed. I did not want him to die, by his own hand or otherwise.

I found her at home, which was odd. She was hardly ever at home, from what I knew. She seemed to be busying herself with work, trying to block everything out.

I got in with little effort, only having to jiggle the handle of the door and it opened. (After it broke off and fell to the floor. I guess I don't know my own strength.)

When I entered the living room, she jumped, standing up quickly.

Puzzled, I stared at her for a long while. Then I realized what was wrong.

"You're pregnant?"

There was a long pause. She seemed like she did not want to answer, but had no choice. "Yes."

"How far along?"

"Three months."

So that would mean that both of them got pregnant at the same time. She had always talked to Chi-Chi about having another baby, and that she might just 'accidentally' get pregnant behind Vegeta's back; but she always said it jokingly. That must have been what she wanted to talk to him about during rut season when she couldn't find him.

I had to sit down. I felt like I was going to vomit. I needed to take everything in.

She was pregnant. Vegeta was pregnant. That would equal four babies. But that would mean that one family would have to suffer.

"It's a girl." She told me, trying to snap me out of my haze.

I didn't care what it was. I hated it before it was even born. It was going to complicate things.

When she saw I was not going to answer, she became her typical defensive self. "I was pregnant first."

I wondered what she was getting at. Was she trying to point out 'first come, first serve'? … No pun intended.

I didn't want to get into an argument, so I let the subject drop to the back of my mind, where it could eat at me for the next few months.

"Vegeta's depressed."

She gave me an unsympathetic look. "He's always _something_."

"But this time it's not because he's in a bad mood. He won't come out of bed, and he won't eat unless I make him."

Her expression changed when she heard he wasn't eating. We both knew it was because of loosing Urain, but we did not know how to help him.

"Around when Trunks was little, I used to put mood medication in his food." She announced. "The medicine worked for a while. His mood swings were a lot easier on him, and he didn't get upset over everything."

I told her I didn't want to deceive him. Anything that I did, I wanted him to know exactly what I was doing and why.

As she thought, she fingered her stomach absently. I didn't point out to her that Vegeta did the same thing.

She sighed. "I don't know what else to tell you. Unless he comes here and lets me look at him, there is nothing I can do. Just make sure he eats enough, and don't leave him alone for a long time."

She didn't seem all that worried about him. She told me all this like it was normal every-day advice.

"And Goku," She said before I had the change to leave, "Please don't tell Vegeta. I don't want him to worry."

I didn't see a reason for Vegeta to worry about her, but I promised her I would not tell him anyway.

I realized that I should get back to Vegeta. He was probably wondering where I was anyway.

Another month came and went.

Vegeta did get over his depression, but only to a point where he would get out of bed and eat.

We didn't talk much anymore. He seemed too distant to talk to about even little things.

I longed to snap him out of this rut he was in, but I didn't know how. He was like an emotional time bomb, just waiting for something that would send him into oblivion.

His detachment began to takes its toll on me. I began to wonder if I really wanted to spend the rest of my life with this man. He had been my rival at one point. I began to question if he wanted to spend his life with me. Then I wanted to know what it was about me that made him separate himself from me like this.

Eventually, I could not deal with these thoughts anymore. I needed to force him to talk to me.

"Vegeta," I said firmly, getting his attention.

"What?" He asked softly, almost like he had no energy.

"We need to talk."

His concentration began to dwindle. "I don't want to talk."

I sat next to him on the couch. "I don't care what you want. You've been like this for a month now. I understand that you're upset, but you can't live like this for the rest of your life. You need to get over this before you do something to hurt us all." By 'us all' I specifically meant out unborn children.

He gave me a blank look. I began to wonder if he had heard me. I was prepared to repeat myself, but he started talking. "Do you want to leave?"

This question puzzled me. "Leave?"

"Do you want to father these children?"

I hesitated, but only because I didn't understand why he was asking me this. "Yes; I am their father."

He nodded, as if to agree that this was true, but nothing more than that. "You don't want to leave?"

I shook my head. "Of course not. I want to be their father." I repeated.

His head cocked to the left, eyes wide and completely dead. "Will you father them because you want to, or will you father them because you feel obligated to?"

This question struck a nerve. "...because I… I want to…" I shook my head. He had gained control over the conversation. "Vegeta, I love you. I need to know that you love me too."

His head straightened. He didn't seem to think hard before he answered. "I don't know what love is."

I sighed. He was being difficult. "Can't you just give me a straight answer?"

He took a second more before he answered. "Yes."

I was not convinced, but I could do nothing more to make him prove it. "So if you love me, then why are you pushing me away?"

There was a long moment of silence. He looked away from me after a few moments, trying to recollect his thoughts.

"I don't know." He said, eyes darting back to mine. "I don't know."

"You don't know…?"

His thumb and middle finger came to rub at his eyes. "I don't understand half the things I do. I don't know why I can't allow you to get to close. I don't know why I'm in a bad mood all the time. I don't know why I can't get over this guilt that's plagued me for so long. I don't know why I can't just let go. I don't know why I can't just let things be as they are; or why I need an answer to everything. I just don't know." His hand had long since dropped form his face. His eyes were shiny with tears.

His answer surprised me. I felt so lost. All this time I had been mad at him for not getting back on track, and in reality, he had been conflicted with much deeper issues than I originally thought.

"I don't want you to leave." He blurted. "But I don't want to keep you here."

I cupped his face. "I'm not going to leave, Vegeta."

He allowed his tears to fall without tending to them, letting them pool in my hand.

"You're going to have to trust me when I say I won't leave you." I kissed him gently, my hand dropping for his face.

His fingers laced with my own, my other hand sweeping against the curve of his abdomen.

All of a sudden I felt something pound against my palm.

The kiss broke soon after, confusion all over my face. "What was that?"

"Kicking." He answered simply. He pulled up his shirt half-way.

Tiny hands and feet could be clearly seen pressing against his stomach. They were so odd to watch; so alien to anything I'd ever seen.

He put his shirt back down and grabbed me back into a passionate kiss.

I was aware that he was not interest in sex that night. Neither was I, so it worked out perfectly.

I was content with just lying next to him; smelling his hair and feeling the movement within him. We both knew that it would not be long now.


	10. The Birth

I awoke that morning feeling odd. It was like I was waiting for something to happen, but I didn't know what I was waiting for.

I got breakfast from the near-by stream. As I was cooking it, Vegeta came in. His hair was a comical mess, his eyes half-opened as he walked.

He tapped me on the shoulder. I turned, and he got right into my face.

"No. More. Fish." He said slowly through his teeth.

I frowned. "Why not? Fish is good."

He shook his head. "No more fish. I can't take it anymore."

I shrugged. "Well, that's all I have right now." I watched as he crossed the room to the table. "What do you want instead?"

He thought about it. "I'm in the mood for bear."

"I'm not going to go out and find you a bear."

"Fine. Giraffe then."

"Vegeta," I said, indicating that he was being unreasonable.

"Kakorot." He gave me a stern look.

I shook my head and continued to cook.

"I'm not going to eat it after today, Kakorot." He said that, but I didn't think he meant it.

I set out breakfast.

He tore into it, giving me dirty looks from across the table.

"How much longer?" I asked, starting the conversation up again.

"A week maybe." He said with his mouth full. "Maybe more, maybe less."

"Less?" I paused. "So, you could have them today?"

He shook his head. "I don't think-" He paused, his eyes rolling to the back of his head. He let out a groan and grasped his stomach.

"Vegeta?"

He half-grinned and went back to eating. "Just joking."

"That's not funny."

"It is, because you fall for it every time."

I frowned, finishing my breakfast. I told him I wasn't going to fall for it again, but we both knew I would.

Later that day, my task was to assemble the cribs.

I had put it off for a long time, mostly because I had no interest to get them set up. But I decided that today I was going to do it.

I went into the spare room and opened up one of the three boxes. I read the first part of the directions.

1.) Secure Plank 1 to Base

I did so. And then I was bored.

So I left the task for another time.

The nice thing about Vegeta was that he really didn't care where I was or what I did most of the time. He didn't care if the cribs were set up in time. If it had been Chi-Chi, she would have nagged and nagged until I couldn't take it anymore and I did it just to shut her up.

He also didn't mind if I came into the house with muddy shoes on. And he didn't yell at me to take a shower after I hadn't for a few days. He never told me to put clothes on if I didn't feel like it, and he didn't really care if the dishes were clean or not.

Now that I had something to compare it to, live with Chi-Chi had been horrible. She picked at every little thing until you couldn't turn around without being yelled at.

I couldn't shake the feeling of waiting I had. Maybe I was just tired.

Vegeta seemed moody as well. He was restless, and didn't want me to touch him.

"I don't know what's wrong with me," He said, "I can't tell if I'm in pain, or if I'm really horny."

This seemed odd to me. There was a pretty big difference between the two. "What do you mean?"

He shifted uncomfortably before laying on his back. "I need a nap."

I let my question drop, and crawled next to him. I propped my head up with one arm, my other arm draping over his hips.

I was half asleep, when all of a sudden, I felt him go rigid. Every muscle in his body tightened at once, like he was alert to some impending danger.

"Kakorot," He said, his voice strained. "They're coming."

I cocked my head, his statement going unregistered. "Who?"

"The children." His teeth clenched, grinning together.

"When?"

"_Now_."

I had less then three seconds before the screaming began.

I didn't want to move him, and it was too late to take him anywhere anyway.

I craved order, but there was no way of calculating anything before I did it. These children were coming now, and I wasn't prepared for them at all.

I grabbed Vegeta's face, trying to focus his attention.

"First; breathe. Second; what do I do?"

His head fell onto the bed, his eyes rolling backwards. He was trying to think over all the distraction.

"Get blankets." He said first, but then changed his mind. "No, get towels. There is going to be a lot of blood."

I did so, grabbing all the towels I could find in the house. We had four, which didn't seem like enough, but there were no other options.

"Should I get hot water?" I asked upon my return.

"For what?"

I thought about it. In all the movies with birth in them, they always got hot water. But they never showed _why_ the hot water was needed. I shrugged, and he growled in agitation.

I came to the bed, pulling off his shorts.

"Don't touch me!" He practically whined. His hands came to rub his face almost obsessively. His knees drew together, just barely covering him.

I guessed it was time to wait. I sat down on the edge of the bed, watching him as he shifted back and forth restlessly.

I hadn't realized it, but my heart was beating so fast I could hear it pulsing through my ears. Adrenalin, excitement, and mortal fear all mixed together into a chaotic tornado within me.

After several minutes, he stopped shifting so continuously.

"It's done?" I asked.

"No;" He spat bitterly, "That was just the first contraction. There is going to be more."

I lay back down next to him and moved to touch his face.

"_Don't_ touch me, Kakorot!" He said this as if he had explained this to me a million times.

I did so anyway, cupping his chin and giving him a chaste kiss. "Don't worry. Everything is going to be fine."

A few minutes later, another contraction hit him. He might have curled into a ball if his stomach had not been in the way.

I could feel his muscles turn to stone.

"Just breathe." I told him.

"Kakorot," He said, surprisingly calm, "Get. Away. From me."

I backed off, sensing that he was very hostile at the moment. I retreated to the chair near the window, watching him writhe.

I wanted to help him, but I didn't know how. It was the same helplessness I had felt when he had been mourning over the lost of our son, Urain.

I realized all at once that it could happen all over again. I would not be able to handle it if even one of our children died during birth. I prayed that nothing like that would happen, paranoia beginning to fill my mind.

The contraction passed, and he was quiet again. He still did not want me to go anywhere near him, so I didn't move.

I heard phantom crying. I imagined the bawl of an infant ringing through the house in just a few minutes. I was excited, but I also dreaded it. That would mean life. That would mean that life had been born, and there was now responsibility to keep that life alive.

"Almost time?" I couldn't take it anymore. The anxiety was getting to me.

"I am going to break every one of your fingers and toes, Kakorot." He said, eyes glaring at me.

My fists unconsciously curled as I thought about that.

He let out a deep groan of pain.

"How does it feel?"

He sighed, trying to clear his thoughts. "It feels like I'm being torn from the inside out." His hands came to rub his face again. "I am never going to sleep with you again Kakorot. Tomorrow we are going to get bunk beds so you won't be tempted."

I would have said something, but I figured I would just let him talk, since he was having my children and all.

Another minute passed. Then another. Then a few minutes became half an hour. Then a full hour. Finally, after an hour and a half, the head of the first infant began to crown.

"So I just catch it?" I asked, giving him a look of uncertainty.

He went into a string of sentences in Saiyan. "Yes, you catch it." Beads of sweat rolled down his face, his eyes squinted and his mouth turned downward into a grimace.

I didn't really want to look where it was going to come out, but I did so anyway, holding back my puke for another time.

It occurred to me that I had no where to put them once they were born. I didn't want to put them on the bed, fearing that they would roll off if we moved too much.

I left him for just a moment to retrieve the still unassembled crib. I put together the top part, the part that would keep them inside the crib, and lay down the cushion. I assumed that three newborns could fit into it, so I didn't need to put together the other two.

I brought it into the bedroom, putting it next to the dresser.

When I went back to Vegeta, the infant's head was nearly all the way out.

The process seemed slow, but couldn't have been that long.

A moment later, the head was fully free, and then the shoulders and the torso fallowed. I pulled it gently, guiding it out carefully. It did not cry, which meant it was not breathing.

I cut the cord with my fingers. Fear began to build, panic soon after.

Vegeta demanded that I hand it over to him. He hit it once on the back, which seemed to do the trick. It took its very first breath for air. Then it screamed. And it was a glorious scream, the kind not thought to be particularly beautiful, but it was anyway.

He handed it back to me, his head falling to the bed, arms unable to prop himself up anymore.

As the infant cried, I examined it. It was a boy, with bright, pink, skin. He was born with a tail, which was covered in mucus and blood. I cleaned him off, and set him down in the almost-done-crib. Before I covered him up, I counted his fingers and toes. They're ten of each, which I expected, but wanted to be sure anyway.

"It's a boy, Vegeta." I announced over the infant's cry. "And he's perfect. His got your nose."

"We still have two more, Kakorot. Focus."

I went back to him, and looked between his legs. Sure enough, the second head was crowning.

This one cried within seconds of being born. It was just like the first in that it was a boy and it had a soft fuzz of dark hair on it's head. This second one would not quiet for any reason at all. I set him down next to his brother, and soon realized they were the exact same baby.

They looked exactly the same in every aspect. As I marveled at their likeness, Vegeta began to yell at me.

"Kakorot, stop hovering over them. Come back over here."

The last child I could tell took more effort. He was tired, his muscles threatening to give out. Even with all his effort, this third child would not come into the world.

He mewled, which I somehow understood as a cry for help.

"Just breath," I told him.

He let out a deep breath he had been holding. "I _am_ breathing!" He sat up, surprising me with how much strength he had left. He gestured for me to come to him. When I came, he motioned to his back. "My back hurts."

I gripped his hips from behind him, messaging his back with my thumbs.

He relaxed beneath my touch, body lulling against my hands.

"Don't fall asleep," I reminded him.

The first two babies seemed tired as well, for their cries grew less forceful.

After another fifteen minutes of that, he lay back down, bracing himself for this last child.

The head would not crown for another half hour. The entire time he seemed to be falling asleep. He was in pain, I could tell, but his muscles were weak; his mind wanted to fall into a dreamless recuperative sleep.

When the head finally did begin to crown, he seemed to wake up. He didn't need to work very hard, for this last one came out with just a few pushes.

It came so fast, I was not really ready to catch it at the time. I just barely caught it before it was too late. It began to cry, mostly from the cold and confusion of its environment.

At the sound of this, the other two began to cry as well once more.

I rolled my eyes, cleaning it off.

This third baby was not like the other two. This one was a girl. She was smaller than the other two, and her tail seemed shorter. But out of the three, she was defiantly the loudest.

I held onto her for a little while longer before putting her into the crib. I bounced her a little, but that seemed to only make her more upset. I put her into the crib, allowing her to cry herself to sleep.

I turned to Vegeta after they had all fallen asleep. He was asleep as well.

I smiled. Even though the experience was frightening and chaotic, and a little odd, I was glad it happened.

I now had three beautiful children to father. Life was so complex. You don't really know what you want until you have it, and then you realize it's all you've ever really wanted.

_**I have an issue. I can't figure out a good name for the girl. If you have any ideas, send them to me.**_


	11. Lable Me

For the first two or three days, Vegeta hardly got up. He was tired, which was understandable, and he was sore.

For those days, I thought about what to name them. They were different than most people on this planet in more ways than one. I didn't want them to have the common boring names the people of this planet did. They didn't look like a Charlie or a Sarah; and I didn't know enough about being a Saiyan to think of anything outside of names I'd heard on Earth.

After the third day was almost done, they began opening their eyes. At first they were cross-eyed and blinked continuously like they had something in their eyes.

The boys had the same color eyes; which was no surprise since they were probably identical; a light auburn that was almost red.

But the girl, the tiny princess; her's were different. They were much redder than the boy's. Her's were a little eerie to stare at for a long time. When I asked Vegeta, he said she had a pigment deficiency, which meant that brown eyes were either repressed, or completely absent from her genes. He said that if they didn't become brown or black in a few days then they will stay the color that they are.

They were much tinier than I had expected, even though Vegeta had told me they would be small. Altogether, they were probably about 4 ½ pounds.

They had not had time to bond with Vegeta very much yet, mostly because he had been trying to recover from after the birth. They did not seem aware of his presence.

"Hi babies," I said upon entering the room and grinned. I moved to the first crib, which belonged to the middle baby. I dangled my hand over his head as his eyes opened. He reached for it, but, just like his siblings, he had no dept perception yet. He would reach and fall just a little short.

They where not in the crying phase yet, which was good. They were saving it, apparently, for when Vegeta was awake.

I lifted him from his crib, which I finally built just a day before. "You're such a good boy," I cooed and kissed his forehead.

I brought him to my chest, and he instinctively held onto my shirt. He was not strong enough to hold on, but he did try. They all did that, so it much have been a Saiyan thing.

I just held him for a little while. He was mostly bald, but the little hair he did have was brown and soft. And even though he had not been bathed that day, he smelled good. It was a distinct baby smell.

The day after their birth, I had broken into the cottage I had shared with Chi-Chi and Goten just half a year ago. I took two boxes of baby clothes that both Gohan and Goten had worn.

I brought it back here and discovered that mostly everything was blue or green. So to make it easy, the first boy was dressed in all blue, and the second in all green. Even though they didn't have names, I didn't want to mix them up before they were even a week old.

The clothes in the boxes were wrapped in plastic to keep the moths and dust off them, like she had been prepared for a third child after Goten. Along with all the boy clothes, there was a little pink dress. She probably bought it after Gohan was born. She desperately wanted a third child, and she wanted it to be a girl.

After Goten, I thought about having another child. But there was always too much going on. I could never think about it seriously. Gohan and Goten were born nearly 12 years apart, and Goten was already in high school. I didn't think it was a good idea to have them so far apart. So we didn't have another one. Maybe if we did have another one, Vegeta and I would have never gotten this far.

I put him back into the crib. They were getting fussy; they were probably hungry.

They ate a lot. From a can of formula that makes three gallons, they probably have a gallon each a day.

They were getting to the point where they would require round-the-clock attention, and Vegeta had no interest to get up, or even trying.

Before I began with the diapers, I went to see if he was awake.

He was, but he pretended to be asleep.

I lay on the bed next to him. "Are you asleep?" I whispered into his ear. He hated that because it tickled his ear. He slapped his ear and pulled away from me.

"Yes, I'm asleep."

I sat up, leaning on one arm. "It's time to waaaaake-uuuuuup…." I said in a sing-song tone. "The babies are hungry,"

"No…." He whined. "Just ten more minutes."

"Life is not going to wait ten more minutes for you, Vegeta." When he didn't respond, I rolled atop him, slipping between his thighs. I loved the way he looked when he was beneath me, and I loved it even more when he was on the verge of falling asleep. His eyes took on this squinty look like he was trying to sleep and look at me at the same time.

I kissed him chastely.

He attempted to push me off, but the attempt was half-hearted. "Go away…" he muttered and his eyes slipped shut once again.

"Aw…. Are we sleepy?" If he had not been so tired, he probably would have hit me for talking to him in such a manner. "Do you want me to sing you a song?"

"No,"

I was tone-deaf, apparently, so he hated when I sang to him. "If you like to talk to tomatoes, if a squash can make you smile,"

"_No_,"

"If you like to walk with potatoes, up and down the produce isles,"

"Stop it."

"Have we got a show for you,"

"Kakorot, don't."

I took a deep breath. "Veggie tails, Veggie tails, Veggie tails- Veggie tails. Broccoli, celery. Gotta be… Veggie tails."

"Kakorot, go away."

"Cauliflower, half an hour-"

"Okay, I'm getting up. Just stop singing."

I pushed off him. "Okay, great. I don't know the rest of the song anyway."

He rolled his eyes and sat up. "Are you going to do that every morning?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. Come on. The wee-ones are calling."

He muttered something about me being too perky, and fallowed me to the nursery.

First was diaper duty. Heh. Duty.

But before we could put the new diapers on, we had to poke holes into the new diapers for their tails.

Vegeta took the girl because he was a bastard. There was a lot of mystery involved in changing a boy. Would they need to pee again? Would they miss you? All of these questions were frightening in which I did not know the answer.

They had good aim, so they rarely missed.

I pulled off the diaper, and sure enough, it shot right onto me. He was just waiting. I recoiled, stepping back half a step.

"Good boy," Vegeta said with a laugh. He reached over and patted the boy's belly. He finished with the girl and put her back into her crib.

I put a new diaper on him and went to change my clothes as Vegeta finished with the last baby.

I had one last clean shirt. There was a lot of laundry to be done from yesterday it seemed, because the pile had doubled since last night.

I went to mix formula while Vegeta entertained them.

The formula was pre-digested since they were newborns. I wasn't sure exactly who digested it first, but it did smell like vomit. I mixed it with water and shook it up. A few times in the past the cap came off when I shook it. I smelled like bile for hours that day.

I brought the bottles into the nursery and handed one to Vegeta.

"Feed the boy first because he screams if he doesn't get fed first."

"He must be the dominate one." He remarked.

I shrugged. "All I know is he's really loud."

It didn't take long to feed them, it never did, for they hardly breathe as they eat, which saved time.

"They need names." I stated. "It's only going to get harder the next few months, and them having no names will make it even worse."

He sighed. "On Vegeta, the women always name the children. The first boy is always named after the father anyway."

I could hardly keep my self from rolling my eyes. "And that would be me, or you?"

He fell silent.

"Exactly." I stated, irritated that I had to point this out to him so many times. "Now. I think it's stupid to have a combination of both our names, so I think it should be something completely different than both ours."

"Why don't we name them after Veggie-Tails since you love them so much." The sarcasm seemed to drip from his voice; dry and crackling.

"Mia, Ty and …. Ry."

He snorted. "Nothing that rhymes."

This was harder than I thought it would be. How difficult is it to give a child a name?

I went to the first child's crib. He was asleep, his long little eyelashes resting on his tiny cheeks.

Vegeta looked over my should for a moment. "I think Aizel." He pronounced it quickly and oddly.

"'Eye-sul'?" I asked.

"Yes. In Saiyan mythology, he's the god of Vengeance. He is- was- worshiped mostly to the East, by the people of the desert."

I thought for a moment. "I didn't think you believed in God."

"I don't believe in the one you call 'God'. But I don't believe in the hundreds of gods created to explain the universe through the eyes of a Saiyan either."

"Then what do you believe in?"

This question seemed to leave him at a loss for a moment. He didn't seem to know how to start.

"I, as the Prince of Saiyans, was bred to believe in live as a task, and war as the bridge to honor among a physical place. I, as a man, believe in many abstract complexities of theory."

He lost me at some point. "I don't think I understand."

"I believe in birth and in death. Those two are constants. I believe in choice. I believe in vengeance. Power. I do believe in a higher power; but not in the same sense that you do. My 'God' as you call it, derives everything that happens by chance. There is no 'It was his time to go' shit, just a simple roll of the dice."

I understood what he was saying, but didn't understand how he could think the way he did. "But how could you base the entire structure of everything on chance?"

He shrugged, "It could be, possibly, that we are only guarantied each day because of chance. A 100 sided dye that is 99 live and 1 die, rolling constantly."

"And if 'die' ever faces up,"

"Then you blink out of existence."

I knew what he meant, but I couldn't get myself to get around what I had been taught; there is but one God, and no other.

"So you never thought there was just one God?"

He gave me a look like he didn't understand. "Kakorot, do you realize how many planets there are? All of them have their 'God'. There is always a different story behind creation for each one. After you hear nine thousand stories, you begin to wonder if they are all right, or all completely wrong and based off imagination on its own."

I decided to drop the subject. I could not compare what I had been taught on earth to what he had witness through years in space.

"How old are you, Vegeta?"

He must have had to do some math, for he did not answer right away. "Probably close to sixty… not any older than sixty-five though."

"Sixty-five?! I don't believe you. How can you be sixty-five? You don't look much older than me!"

He seemed to not understand what I was saying, for his eyes fell shut, trying to meet my level of 'Earth-thinking'. "Saiyans… they live for a long time."

"How long?"

"The oldest I know of was over one hundred and fifty when he died."

I whistled. "Why so old?"

He shrugged. "Don't know. But you have to factor in the time in space. In space, you don't age the same. So technically, I'm about 40."

So he was about the same age as me. He looked older though. I put Aizel into his crib. He had fallen asleep in my arms, and when I placed him back down his eyes opened for a second and then rolled shut.

I moved to stand over number two's, as I'd come to call him, crib. He was a little quieter than the other boy, a little more laid back. He was awake, his bright auburn eyes wide. He smiled, stretching out his hands and feet. He grabbed one of his feet and put it into his mouth as he watched me.

I laughed, picking him up. I raised him above my head. He looked down at me, mouth wide with joy.

It was a Kodak moment, right up until he threw up on me. I swooped him down, holding him away.

Vegeta was laughing now. "That made my day."

"Aw, that was my last shirt!"

He shrugged. "Go naked." There was still a hint of a smile on his face. "I think Lysander."

When I gave him a look like I didn't know what he was talking about, he elaborated.

"He was the God of Chaos." He thought for a moment longer. "How will that sound? 'How did you get you name?' 'I threw up.'"

I laughed; surprised he had made a joke about puke. I put him back into the crib.

"The girl." He said, frowning. "There were no women in Saiyan mythology."

"Really? How come?"

He shrugged. "I didn't come up with it."

It took a long time for one of us to come up with a name for her. All day, actually.

It was noon by the time I thought of something.

I remembered seeing some boring special on Mozart a while ago. I remember they said he did most of his work in a place in Austria. It took me forever to remember what the name of the place was, though.

"How about Vienna?"

Vegeta thought it over. He had never heard of the place or of Mozart at all, so he had no problem with it.

Life was good for a long time; almost four months. Vegeta quickly went back to his normal size, and no longer looked emaciated. The triplets could sit up, but they could do little else.

I had not heard for anyone in forever. I wondered how Bulma was doing with the baby; if she knew what it was, if she had a name for it, if she planned to tell Vegeta.

Chi-chi had not spoken to me since that fight. That had been such a long time ago. Seven months.

As time went on, I began to feel like there was nothing more than this. Like the world we had built in this tiny cottage was going to close us off from the rest of the world forever. Drive us maybe to madness.

I realized that my thoughts were becoming paranoid. Irrational. I had thought maybe it was just restlessness. But I had the feeling that life was about to get very interesting.


	12. With Discoveries Come Heartache

Before I knew it, four months had come and gone. The triplets had grown considerably. They had begun to stand up, which was pretty amazing in of itself. They could form simple sentances in three different languages, so most of the time; I had no idea what they were talking about.

I loved watching their individual personalities show through. I would spend hours just watching them play with each other.

Aizel, the oldest by three minutes, was so rambunctious. He was constantly pushing the limits of what he could do. He was loud, but almost never said words. It was more like high-pitched screaming. He reminds me of myself when I was younger.

Lysander, the middle child, was much more laid back. Don't get me wrong, he was almost as hyper at times as his brother, but he was much easier to control. He was so curious as well, and asked questions, to the best of his ability, about nearly everything. He was defiantly a thinker; one of those people that would just sit and think for hours on one subject. Defiantly not my forte, but I could tell he got that from Vegeta.

And then there was the Princess, as Vegeta already began to call her. I had never seen a child that was as calm as Vienna. She was one of those people that were slow to anger and infinitely patient. I didn't know where she got this from, considering that Vegeta had the patience of a premenstrual teenager, and my fuse wasn't much longer. But she was as she was. If you asked me, she didn't seem that cut out for fighting.

What amazed me the most though, was their ability to imitate. They would repeat a lot of things either of us would say, and though they didn't know the meaning of the word, they would use it anyway.

They imitated a lot of bad habits too. Like they had seen us drop food, and then pick it back up and eat it. Now, they threw their food on the floor purposely, just so they could pick it back up and eat it.

So far, since they had begun to stand on their own, Vegeta had taught them to block, and throw crooked punches, but that was about it. Most of the time when they punched, they would fall over anyway. It was amusing to watch though.

Today, I guess we were teaching them to swim.

They were all in their diapers, while I stood behind them and Vegeta stood waist deep in the water.

He was talking to them in Saiyan, which he often did, but they didn't seem to be listening. They were too busy digging in their ears and noses to pay attention.

Before I could stop him, and before Vegeta was done talking, Aizel jumped into the water with a splash. He'd taken baths before, so this was just a bigger equivalent to the bath tub.

Apparently the deepness of the water caught him off guard, for he flailed, and his head went underwater.

Vegeta grabbed his arm, pulling him above the water.

As this went on, Vegeta had not paused in his lecture; almost like he expected this to happen. He put the boy back on land and continued without loosing his train of thought.

I didn't know what he was telling them, but I knew a few words by now. Like 'Don't lick that,' was '_Alile mun-ya_,'. And 'I'm horny' is '_Sowá seleal_.' But the first one was never directed towards me.

I also knew just about every curse word there was. Apparently, there are 16 bad words in Saiyan, while in English there are only 7. So far, my favorite was '_Binashte_,' which was something like 'Ass Fucking Whore.' Three bad words for the price of one.

"Kakorot, did you get that?" He asked.

When I blinked and looked at him, he seemed annoyed. "Sorry, I was thinking about bad words. What did you say?"

"I said, on the count of three, push them in."

I had no time to think about right and wrong. He was on three before I knew what happened.

They were all soon failing and kicking in the water.

"Don't save them, they'll do it themselves." He said.

I did trust him, but his methods made me… uneasy.

"_Julay na rean, ristas_." He called to them, which meant 'Swim or drown, runts.'

A few moments later, they got the hang of it. They were actually pretty good after just a half an hour.

"Good job," I said getting into the water myself. "They learn fast." I said to Vegeta.

He nodded. "On Vegeta, they would have learned to swim before they walked, but the water wouldn't thaw."

Spring had just begun. This was their first spring, but they didn't seem all that impressed. It was funny how I documented everything as a 'first'.

"Da," Aizel called as he dog-paddled towards us. They called me Daddy, or Papa, but they always called Vegeta 'Da'. _Dashte _meant 'Prince' in Saiyan, while _Dande_ meant father.

He mumbled something inherently in a mix of English and Saiyan.

"He says it's cold." Vegeta explained.

"We should go inside anyway; it's almost lunch time."

I carried Vienna at my side. She was by far the quietest of the three of them. She looked back over my shoulder, as if watching the world shrink behind us and then disappear behind a door.

"What do was want to eat?" I asked her.

She did not respond, but she did look as though she was thinking.

"Cookies!" Lysander cried, which was by far, his favorite word.

"That's what you _always_ want to eat." I said with a grin. I turned to ask Aizel, "What should…" I trailed off when I realized he was gone.

I put Vienna down and looked all around the room. I had taken my eyes off him for just a moment; he couldn't have gotten that far.

When I found him, he was with Vegeta in the nursery. Vegeta was standing near the door, watching him.

When I got a better look, I saw that he was trying to stick a fork into the electrical socket.

"Ai, don't…!"

Vegeta stopped me. "Let's just see what'll happen, Kakorot."

"He's going to shock himself," I explained.

"I'm aware. Once he does it once, maybe he won't do it again."

I came to realize that this was how Vegeta taught. It was not by telling or showing, but by letting you learn from your own mistakes.

Eventually, the fork did find a place inside the electrical socket.

The boy fell silent, and then the tears began along with the screaming.

"Have we learned?" Vegeta asked over the screaming.

He turned, crying, and nodding his head.

"Good." Vegeta promptly left the room.

With his tiny face welled with tears, he showed me his hand; his lower lip quivering and his chin tucked low to his chest.

I picked him up. "It's okay," I said, "I know. But now you know not to do that, yeah?"

He seemed to be nodding just so I'd shut up and kiss his hand. After I did so, he quieted. I set him down to join his siblings.

When I returned to the kitchen, I found that Vegeta was cooking. I wondered how good of an idea this was, since I couldn't recall ever seeing him cook anything.

I sat in the living room with the babies, awaiting the sound of the smoke detector. Or screaming. Whatever came first.

We played blocked, which was the most boring game they had. You set eh blocks up, and then you knock them down. There's nothing further than that. So I grabbed a book.

"How about we read something?" I asked them.

"No," Lysander cried, "No book! Cookie!"

"No cookies," I said, "Da's making food."

"Cookies!" He insisted.

"Pop and cookies!" Aizel added.

It was times like these that I wish we had a TV to raise them. I know it's terrible to say, but I do. Just something to keep their attention for ten minutes or so.

Whatever Vegeta was cooking actually smelled good. I became increasingly curious of what he was doing.

Ten or fifteen minutes later, he came into the room with a plate of something that looked really good.

"What's that?" I asked.

"I don't know; I saw it on TV at the store."

"Like a TV dinner?"

"It was like a cooking show or something. It took forever to get through the line, so I was watching it."

"And you remembered how to do it?"

He nodded. "Wasn't that hard."

I went in to get a plate for myself. There was chicken, rice, vegetables, and something things that I wasn't sure what it was. All I knew was that it was like orgasm in my mouth. It was the kind of food that made you sad when it was gone.

The babies liked it too. Thiers was mashed up into a mess, but they still liked it.

"How come you never cooked before?" I asked as I shoveled the last few bites into my mouth.

He shrugged. "I didn't feel like it."

I nodded. Perfectly reasonable explanation.

Now that I knew he could cook, or remember recopies well enough to duplicate them from TV, it really encouraged me to think about getting a TV.

"Well, it's really good. I'm very impressed."

"If you like that, you should try _Flante_. They take giant ground worm larva and they flame broil it so the outside is crispy, then they take this straw or something and suck out the inside and put it in a bowl. It's really good."

I swallowed slowly. "What do you do with the rest of the worm?"

"You dunk it in the soup stuff they get from the insides."

"That sounds like the most horrific meal I can think of." I said bluntly.

He cocked his head. "It's really good, though. I'd eat it everyday if this planet had giant ground worms."

I shuttered to think of how one would harvest giant ground worm larva.

"You guys full?" I asked and turned to them. They all lay sprawled about the floor, sleeping. "I guess they are."

We carried them into the nursery and put them into their cribs.

"I love this time of day," Vegeta said out of the blue. "They don't talk, they don't fight, they don't scream. They just lay there, and I don't have to do anything." He sighed.

As soon as we left the room, he turned to me.

"Do you want to play a game?"

I was instantly curious. Vegeta did not 'play games', unless there was a reason to.

"It's called Open Book. You say something about yourself that's either true or false. Then I have to guess which it is. If I guess right, you have to take off an article of clothes. Then we switch. The first one to be completely naked looses."

I agreed, and we both left for the bedroom.

"Okay," I started, "When I was younger, I hit my head so hard I was in a coma for weeks."

He rolled his eyes. "True. You have to make it harder than that, Kakorot. Now take something off."

I untied my belt and dropped it off the side of the bed.

He leaned back, thinking. "When I first met you, I despised everything about you."

"True?"

"No," He said, "I actually liked your sense of humor." This statement completely caught me off guard. When silence fallowed, he nudged me with his foot. "Your turn."

"Chi-chi was my first crush."

"I know that one, Kakorot. False."

I sat up straighter. "How did you know?"

"Intuition. You're first crush was my wife. Go on; take something off."

He was really good at this game. I was beginning to think maybe it was a bad idea to take the challenge. I took off one boot.

"My first year on Earth, I had to go to the hospital because I stuck my hand inside the garbage disposal and turned it on because I didn't know what it was."

This story was so bazaar, it had to be true.

"No, that never happened. When you go to so many different places, you learn not to stick your hand into things if you don't know what they are."

"So then it's partially true; you didn't know what it was." I pointed out.

"That doesn't count; you have to get most of it right."

"You didn't say that!"

He rolled his eyes. "Fine." He removed one glove. "Your turn."

"My closet's full of the same orange gi, but I only where one of them."

He paused to think this over. "False. Your wife seems like the kind of person to buy you clothes, but then you never wear them, and she bitches because she ends up washing the same three pairs of clothes you wear every week."

I was amazed at the accuracy of his answer. It was like he had been inside my mind already and had grown tired of it. I removed my other boot.

"It seems like I'm winning. All you have to do is get three questions right, and then I'll have nothing else to remove. But you; you seem to have way more clothes on than I do, and still, you undress quicker." He pointed out. He paused to think of something to say. "The mark on my ass isn't a birthmark; it's where I was beaten with a lead pipe."

His face was completely serious. His eyes stared into mine, unwavering. I wished for it to be untrue, but I had a feeling it was.

"True?"

"Are you asking?"

"True." I restated.

His face fell slack. "No, it's a birthmark. You're really bad at this game."

I frowned deeply. I wondered how it was that he kept tricking me. It was something about the way he told the story. It was the attention to imaginary detail. He added little things that never really happened to make the story more believable.

"Okay," I began. "When I was fifteen, I found a bottle of Ibuprofen and thought it was candy. I ate the whole bottle. When Bulma found me eating them, she dragged me to the hospital to have my stomach pumped."

He paused for a long time. He knew I was perfectly capable of doing such a thing, but then again I had been 15. "True…" He finally guessed.

"Nope, false. I'm pretty sure that most fifteen years olds don't mistake pain medication for candy."

He nodded. "That's what I was thinking, too." He thought for a moment longer. "I'm severely dyslexic."

I tried to recall seeing him read a book, or even write his own name. I could not remember a single instance were he had needed to prove that he could read, or write. I was at a loss. It could go either way. "False?"

He paused and gave me a look. He sat up and removed his shirt. Lean, hard muscles lined his chest beautify. His stomach was tight and perfect for biting. I wanted to touch him, but I knew I had to focus.

"Okay, people have asked if you were my brother."

He cocked his head. "False."

"Damn it!" I cried and removed my over shirt.

"I nearly drank myself to death last summer."

"False." I said immediately, figuring it would take a lot for a Saiyan to drink himself to death.

He shook his head.

My jaw dropped. "How much did you drink?"

"Apparently too much. I passed out and turned blue. Bulma took me to the hospital and they had to purify my blood. I had an awful hangover the next morning."

"What… like, what happened?"

He shrugged. "I don't really know. I started drinking, and then I couldn't stop. I woke up in the hospital and couldn't remember anything."

I decided it was better if we dismissed the subject for another time. "I can lick my elbow."

He half-chuckled. "True. All Saiyans can do that."

I glared and removed my undershirt. "How come?"

"How come they can do that?" He thought about it. "It's probably because when we used to live in trees, it was beneficial to be double jointed and flexible."

"Oh. That makes sense."

"Let me see…" He lay down and stared up at the ceiling. His hands came to rest on his chest loosely. "I've never been skinny dipping."

"True."

"False," He corrected.

I was in shock. "_You_? You, the Proper Prince of Saiyans have been skinny dipping?"

He nodded. "And with a man, too."

I shook my head, unable to get over that. "What were you doing?"

"I was like 16 or something. It was dark, and really, really cold. He bet me I was too much of a wimp to go skinny dipping with him. So I had to go. Then when we went to get our clothes back, someone stole them. It was the worst day of my life for a long time."

"Fine." I thought for a long time. All I had left was my pants, so all he had to do was get one more question right. "I went to Vegas once and lost $4,000 in one night."

"True." He finally decided.

I sighed. "You win."

"I always win." He smirked.

I stood and began to drop my pants.

He began to hum a sensuous tune, as if I were a stripper or something.

I sat back onto the bed and rubbed my arms. It was colder than I thought it was.

"Do you want to continue to play, or should we just fuck and go to bed?" he asked.

"Who said we were going to fuck?" I asked suspiciously.

There was a split second where he thought I was serious, but then he understood that I was kidding.

"We should keep playing until you loose too."

He didn't bother to point out that he'd already won. "I only have nine toes."

I glanced at his feet, which were snuggly tucked beneath him. "Ah… true?"

He unfolded his legs. "Wrong. I do have ten." He thought for a moment. "This scar," He ran his fingers across the one on his chest near his shoulder, "Was from an aircraft accident. I almost lost my arm."

I thought carefully. There was a lot of details to the story, but he seemed to be genuinely telling the truth. "True?"

His eyebrows rose. I thought he was going to take off his pants, and we could get to the sexin'; but he took off his other glove; the one I had forgotten about.

His next statement threw me off completely. I had not expected him to say anything like this.

"I have a fifth child on the way." He said this almost like it was a question, and not a statement.

I felt trapped. I wasn't sure if he knew or if he was asking. "True." I finally just said.

He turned his face away from me to think. "How far along is she?"

I calculated in my head. "It's nearly time, I think."

He nodded. "I'll see her tomorrow." He arched back with h hips lifted off the bed. He slipped his pants off and dropped them onto the floor.

I could see his skin was dry, but that just turned me on further, as I thought about how he would soon be slicked with sweat and moaning my name beneath me.

I looped one arm around his back and pulled him into a bruising kiss.

He pulled away though to say something more. I continued down his neck. "Why didn't she tell me?" The question seemed to bite at his mind. "Perhaps… it's not my child."

I lightly bit his collarbone and rested my head on his chest. "It's yours. I know it is."

"So you've seen her? What reason did you have to see her?"

I whined. "Can we talk about this after?"

He pushed me away. "No; why did you go to see her without me?"

I debated whether or not I should tell him. "It was after Urain died."

He did not respond.

"You were so… upset. I went to ask her if she could help you. I saw that she was pregnant."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"She made me swear not to."

"So you'll keep a secret for the woman that hates you with everything she has, and you'll keep secrets from the only one that still stands by you?" His spite seemed to slip so far into his speech that it almost hurt to look at him.

I grabbed him into a hug, crushing our bodies together. "I'm sorry. I should have told you,"

"Let me go!" He cried, "I don't want your apologies now!" He pushed against me as he crawled backwards on his knees near the headboard.

"I just…" I paused, unsure if I wanted to tell him, "I didn't want you to know. I didn't want you to feel like… you had to go back to her."

He stopped moving at once, freezing within my grasp.

"I didn't want you to choose her over me."


	13. Best Wishes

"I didn't want you to choose her over me…" I repeated softly.

He no longer tried to pull away. He hardly even moved. I could feel his heart beating like mad in his chest. He was angry, I knew that, but his anger seemed to be dwindling.

I let my grip loosen, and then wrapped my arms around his tiny waist, drawing him towards me, his hips against my stomach. He kept his arms at his sides. He was lost in thought, as if trying to solve some complex problem.

"Vegeta," My voice was breaking; spilling out of my mouth in a tone that I had not intended. "I'm sorry."

His eyes darted up. There was no longer anger. It was something else. Depression, perhaps. It was easy to calm him down after he had vented. Much easier than trying to quiet him right away.

He took a deep breath, his chest expanding slowly, and then quickly retracting. "I think I need to go to bed."

I was a little upset that we would not have sex, even though he had clearly said we would earlier, but I understood why he did not want to.

I nuzzled my face to his chest and listen to him breathing. His heart has slowed considerably. Even though he was quick to anger, he was also quick to calm; most of the time.

"I'm sorry," I repeated.

"I know." He stated bluntly. He did not push me away, though, which I was glad for. I loved how small his waist was, in comparison to my own, and the way his hips poked out just slightly underneath his tight chiseled abs.

His arms came to slowly wrap around my shoulders, his head resting on my own.

For several minutes we said nothing. After a while, he began to ask questions.

"Do you know what it is?"

"A girl."

He snorted, but it was not an annoyed or angry snort. "The Princess will have a sister."

I nodded, but said nothing.

"And you're sure it's mine?"

"Yes, I'm sure. She told me it was."

He fell silent once more. He ran his fingers through my hair a few times before pulling back to look at me. "I want to see her."

I nodded. "You have the right to."

"And I want her to remember me. I want her to know who her father is."

That seemed reasonable enough.

"And I want her to know that she is just as important as the triplets," He paused. "And I don't want her to be soft,"

"She's a baby, Vegeta. Don't get too far ahead." I said gently, but he continued on.

"And I don't want to treat her like I did Trunks." This last part seemed to blurt out before he could stop himself.

I didn't know what he meant by this.

Now that he had said it, he seemed to feel like he needed to explain it to me. "I ignored him. I still ignore him. He hardly even speaks to me."

"They why don't you try and talk to him?"

He seemed to drop the subject, disregarding my suggestion. "I want to see them tomorrow."

I swallowed. I wasn't sure how he was going to react to seeing them all, without him. I assumed he would put on his best stone-face, waltz in, take a look around, and then leave. I was in for a big surprise.

The next morning, he awoke at 4 am, before the sun was even up. He woke me as well.

"I think we should get ready to go,"

I let my head fall back to the pillow. "It's four am,"

He nodded offhandedly, "I'm aware of what time it is. Come on. She'll be awake in a few hours,"

"Why are you so eager to go see her? It's not like she won't be there at noon,"

He seemed taken aback by this. "She's carrying my child," The bewilderment in his eyes was a little stand-offish. "My _baby_, Kakorot."

"Alright, fine, I'm sorry. But can't we go see her later on? Like maybe after breakfast?"

"What if she leaves?"

"Where is a pregnant woman going to go on a Thursday?"

He seemed to consider this. "I want time to talk to Trunks."

I nodded. "You'll have time to talk to him, trust me."

He seemed put off by this. He left the room without another word.

He returned nearly three hours later, Vienna rested on his hip, the boys at his feet. "They're awake, Kakorot. Time to get up."

I groaned, glancing at the clock. How could he be so awake at this hour? I made a motion to get up, but my arms went weak and I feel back down again.

"Who wants to wake up Papa?" His voice was icy, but the triplets did not seem to notice.

The boys jumped on me at the same time, falling hard onto my back. The wind was knocked from my lungs as they jumped, hollering incoherent words.

"Okay, I'm getting up!" I cried and sat up.

They giggled as they rolled off the bed and onto the floor. They immediately rushed to my side when I rose to my feet, blanket wrapped around my waist.

"Papa," They began, and then started talking at the same time. I could only pick up the words that were in English or Japanese, and only when one became louder than the other.

I put up my hands, quieting them. "Let me get dressed, and then I'll talk to you,"

They scampered out of the room, each trying to push the other over to begin a fight.

Vegeta put Vienna on her feet. "Go play with your brothers." He muttered to her.

She left with a reluctant glace back at us.

I realized he was angry with me, but I wasn't sure what to say that would not upset him further.

I put some clothes on and then turned to look at him. "Are you angry with me?"

He said nothing, only stared. His eyes were piecing, like he was looking right past me into my soul. It was haunting to think about; sending shivers down my spine. "Not angry," he said eventually, "Frustrated. Aggravated. Irritated. Not angry, though."

I cocked my head. "Well, at least you're not angry." I had not meant to be sarcastic, but the words had been said before I could stop myself.

His eyebrows rose, but his mouth remained turned down into a slight frown.

"How come you're not angry?" I asked casually, as if I did not really care if he told me or not.

"Because I've gotten to the point where I can tolerate the things you do and say without getting angry. It's become easier to except them as part of your personality."

"I see…" Though I really didn't.

His arms came to cross his chest. "Are we going to leave now?"

The ride to Capsule Corp. was made much less awkward by the triplets. They loved to fly. They loved everything about it. They would point to things periodically; watching the scenery change.

When we landed, Vegeta wasted no time going inside. When he found that the door was locked, he let himself in by retrieving the key that was taped above the door.

He went in unannounced, and came to an immediate stop.

There was Bulma, nearly as thin as she had been nine months ago. In her arms, a tiny baby was cradled; asleep it seemed.

She had a look of surprise and confusion on her face.

A moment ago, Vegeta seemed to know exactly what he was going to say. Exactly what he was going to do. Now he stood completely still, as if shell-shocked.

Gently, he put the boys on the floor. Lysander immediately protested and begged him to pick him back up with forceful, pitiful whines, but Vegeta ignored him.

"She's…" He began but stopped. He turned back to me, as if to ask if I had known the baby was born already. I shook my head. He looked back at her.

He straightened himself eventually, and cocked his head slightly. "You have a baby," He said this as if he already knew she did, but was trying to think of something, anything, to break the silence.

"And so do you," She said, her voice distant, "Three of them."

The boys ventured back towards me with pigeon-toed steps. They felt the tension in the air, but could not understand the source of it all. They huddled at my feet, anxiousness overcoming them.

He stepped towards her, but then stepped back hesitantly. "Can I…?" He trailed off, letting her finished the rest.

"Hold her? She might be cranky," She stepped towards him slowly and handed him the tiny infant. She seemed surprised when he actually held her correctly.

I heard her whine from my position at the door. The triplets tensed and huddled closer to me.

Vegeta pulled the blanket from her and held her away from him slightly. A tail slipped out from the blanket and hung limply.

He was at once convinced whose child this was. He hugged her to his chest and purred to her lowly. The sound was nearly inaudible, but I heard it, and the triplets did too, for they relaxed instantly.

"What's her name?" he asked, pausing in his purring for a moment.

Bulma seemed awkward, standing there alone without anyone by her side. She hooked an arm behind her, where it came to grasp the other arm, which hung limply at her side. "I was going to let you name her, but you weren't here…" She trialed off and then finally got to the point. "Her name's Bra."

He cocked his head at the name, as if he was unsure if he liked it. "I see."

Bra was very young; probably not even a week old. She did open her eyes periodically, but they almost always crossed when she did, and they seemed to have a hard time focusing. When she would whine or get to the eager of crying, Vegeta would simply purr to her and she would silence immediately and fall back asleep.

We all went into the living room to 'catch up' I suppose. I was very uncomfortable, and I assumed Vegeta was too, but the triplets were completely oblivious to this.

They had a fixation with Bra, who had not left Vegeta's arms since they had arrived. They seemed to want to communicate with her; in their baby-talk that had the occasional word in it; but she, obviously, was uninterested.

"Baby," I said to them quietly.

"Baby…" They all cooed in unison. The amazement on their faces was indescribable. I could not remember the last time something had astounded me; and to see it come so easily to them was something amazing in of itself.

"Her name's Bra,"

"Bra!" Vienna was the only on to respond. She had a wide grin on her face, her eyes lit up with glee.

"And what's your name?" Bulma asked suddenly.

They turned to her and stared for a moment.

Vegeta said something to them in Saiyan, not taking his eyes of Bra.

Ly and Vienna said their names, but Ai did not say his own. He cocked his head and continued to stare.

I tapped him. "What's your name?"

He looked at me, squinted, and then looked back to Bulma. "Aizel," His voice was quiet, as if he were shy.

Of the three of them, I would not have expected Aizel to be shy. He was so rambunctious at home; it seemed only natural that he would be with other people. I guess that assumption had no ground.

Bulma leaned back on the couch, her arms coming to cross his chest loosely. "They're so adorable," She said this as if it were an afterthought, as if she had wanted to say something else first and then changed her mind.

"Thank you," I said, but was unsure if this was the right response.

"How old are they?"

I counted for a moment in my head. "A little more than four months,"

She seemed too stunned to speak for a moment. "How can that be? They are walking. And talking."

Vegeta answered this. "They are Saiyans. They developed much faster than humans."

I guessed they did look pretty old to be only four months. They looked like they were almost one, at the most; especially since they tended to mimic what other people said and did.

Vienna tried to climb onto Vegeta's lap, but he set her back onto the floor, where she sat for a long time before getting onto my lap instead.

Bra began to whine, and then she began to cry.

I heard Vienna attempt to purr to her, but it came out as more of a whirring sound if anything.

"She needs a diaper change." Bulma stated. "And a nap."

Vegeta handed her over reluctantly and settled back as Bulma walked away. "She has blue eyes," He said suddenly.

I was unsure what he was getting at, so I nodded. "Bulma's eyes are blue."

He nodded as well.

"Da, baby gone?" Ly asked, his little hands coming to grasp Vegeta's knee.

"Yes, the baby's gone. She has to go to sleep."

"We go sleep?" He asked, a worried expression on his face.

"If you want," He answered gently.

"No; no sleepy." He put his arms up, and Vegeta lifted him onto his lap.

I ruffled Aizel's hair. "How come you're so shy?"

He didn't seem to understand the question, so he did not respond to it. "Hungry."

"Yeah," Vienna agreed. "_So_ hungry."

"So hungry?" I asked, faking surprise, "Are you starving?"

"Yeah," they agreed.

"What do you want?"

"Ketchup," Aizel replied without skipping a beat.

"Ketchup?" I looked at Vegeta with a confused frown. He shrugged. "Okay, ketchup… anything else?"

"Cookies!"

"Ketchup and cookies?"

"How about some real food? I want some pig," Vegeta said, "Some ribs."

The moment he said that my own stomach growled. "I could go for ribs. You guys want ribs?"

I didn't even have to ask them. They were up for any kind of food we would give them. They did not have all their teeth, but they had enough to chew some nice, fall off the bone ribs.

When Bulma returned, she sat down and said nothing.

"You want some ribs?" Vegeta asked without hesitation.

She blinked, and then frowned slightly. "I guess…"

"Good." He stood up. "I'll be right back."

I knew he was going hunting, but I did not want to tag along. His way of hunting was a little too out there for me. So I stayed in with the triplets. And Bulma.

"Are you guys getting along?" She asked out of the blue.

I blinked and then nodded. "Yes…"

"He hasn't pissed you off yet?"

"He sometimes frustrates me, but he hasn't 'pissed me off'… Why?"

"Because," She said with a shrug, "He will."

I was unsure why she was telling me this. She seemed to be trying to prove a point. "How are things here?"

"Fine," She seemed uninterested in talking about herself. Her attention was completely on me. "Do you sleep in the same room?"

"Yes."

She leaned forward, resting her elbow on her chin. "Do you still talk to Chi-chi?"

I shook my head.

"She's pretty mad at you. Well, she's actually madder at Vegeta. You should think about talking to her some time."

I disregarded that suggestion immediately. What reason did I have to talk to her? What reason did I have to acknowledge she exists?

"Does he talk about me?" Her questions were become more and more off-topic it seemed. It was like she was trying to take a peek into our little world; like she wanted to understand it or something.

"Sometimes."

"What does he say?"

"Just stuff."

"What kind of stuff?"

"Like… just random things. It's not bad things, just stuff about you. I can't really be more specific than that."

Her eyes shifted to the triplets that sat at my feet. They were beginning to doze off. They should probably have a nap as well. But I knew as soon as Vegeta came back and the food was ready, they would be wide-awake. "Does he talk about Trunks?"

I shook my head. "Not really."

"I figured." She said this under her breath, as if she resented him for that or something. "He never held Trunks like that."

"What do you mean?"

"He hardly ever held Trunks when he was a baby. He pushed him away. He said he was making him tough. But I knew it wasn't going to work." She said this last part bitterly, like she had wanted to tell him that for a long time.

"He's different now," I stated.

She nodded. "I know. He just…" She sighed, "He doesn't think like us. He doesn't think like anyone I know."

I understood what she meant. What was normal for him was much different then what was normal for you or I. "And he's changed. He's much more… normal, I guess. He isn't as paranoid, he isn't as angry; he doesn't feel like the end of the world is coming-"

"He doesn't push people away as hard as he used to." She interrupted with a grave nod. "He hasn't pushed you away yet."

Silence fallowed. She made me more uncomfortable than she probably meant, but it was tolerable form of discomfort. She didn't seem angry with me, or him even. She just seemed like she wanted to understand. Just she wanted to get it.

I had a feeling she never would understand, could not grasp what we had, but at least she was trying.

She watched as the children as they dozed off. She smiled gently. "I wish you two the best of luck. For them. I wish you luck as long as you can be good parents to them."

I bowed my head. "Thank you. That means a lot."


	14. Colors of the Future

It was the week before the triplet's first birthday. We weren't really in to throwing big parities, so we decided it would be just us.

I couldn't believe how quickly time had passed. It seemed like just last week we had been terrified of even having children. Now it all doesn't seem like that big of a deal.

I was amazed with Vegeta as well. He seems to be so much more patient with everything he does. Not to a point where he doesn't snap on occasion, but he could handle many things he probably would not have just a year ago.

Even though they were triplets; born on the same day, within a few minutes of each other; they had strikingly different personalities.

For one thing, the boys were really into fighting. It wasn't in a sibling rivalry sort of way, but more like they were just driven to knock the other down a few pegs. Both of them were incredibly completive, even at this young of an age.

But separately, Aizel was more of the aggressive type. He liked to antagonize the other two. He wasn't a mean kid, I don't think, he just liked to see what reaction he would get. He also wasn't much of a talker. He seemed uninterested in conversation, and tended to want to fight to solve all problems. He was also uninterested in the things that normal children do; color, read books, play pretend. He liked to be outside and running around. He didn't really like the house at all.

Lysander, on the other hand, was a little bit easier to get through to. He seemed to understand almost anything you told him; to the best of his abilities. He was interested in fighting; but he was just as interested in observing. He asked a lot of questions. A _lot_ of questions. Sometimes neither I nor Vegeta had an answer. He didn't talk all that much either; unless it was to ask a question and then to ask more questions to understand the answer. He hardly ever answered questions about himself; maybe because he already knew about himself and wasn't learning anything new.

But then there was Vienna. She was … different. I don't think I've ever met anyone like her. She did fight, but only when asked; never voluntarily. She was the one that liked to talk. Her constant talking seemed to compensate for the boys' lack of it. But most of all, she liked to read. She could not actually read; but she did like to be read to. She seemed to love words. She was always looking for the meaning behind something. Not just definitions, but the messages of the things she read.

Currently, things were beginning to wind down. It was about bed time. The boys had worn themselves out from running around all day, and I was exhausted from chasing after them.

Vienna asked Vegeta to read to her.

He didn't mind reading to her, I don't think. I think he liked spending time with her because she was so easy to please. "Let's try a harder book today." He grabbed a thick book from the shelf and set it down.

She cocked her head at it. "All of this tonight?"

He shook his head. "Just the first chapter."

"What's a chapter?"

"A chapter is the way the book is divided. Sometimes chapters mark the ending of an event in the story. Sometimes they mark when a thought is finished with. Sometimes there are just there to get you to read the next chapter."

"Oh." I wasn't sure if she understood, but she seemed to drop it.

He opened it as he sat down.

"What's this book about?"

"Animals."

They started reading after that. She liked books with animals. Apparently, it was called Animal Farm, and it was about animals. On a farm. And they talked to each other.

After an hour or so, it was time for bed. I had never been so grateful for sleep.

"Come on, Vienna, time for bed." I picked her up and began to carry her off.

"Wait, just one more chapter!" She hardly knew what a chapter was, and already she was begging for another. "I have to know what happens to them!"

"Tomorrow." I said with a yawn.

She yawned too, seeming to ketch my initial yawn. "But… Da! They don't kill the horse, do they? Is he okay?"

Vegeta shrugged. "Have to wait until tomorrow."

"You're all against me!" She cried and slumped over my shoulder. "I'm not tired yet. I don't want…" She yawned, "To sleep yet. I have to know what happens…" she was asleep before we were even in the bedroom.

It had been clear to us for a while that this house was far too small. There was clearly not enough room to house this many people. This would be even more apparent as the triplets got older, I assumed. Vienna would need her own room eventually. And there just wasn't another room to give her.

For now, they all slept in the same room. As cramped as it was, they didn't seem to mind all that much. The boys shared a bunk bed, which I had taken from Chi-Chi house while she was out shopping. It was partially mine anyway, wasn't it? And she wasn't using it. As for Vienna, she slept in a bed that Trunks had used when he was little.

We put them to bed, which was surprisingly easy, compared to most nights.

Once outside their bedroom, we stared for our own room.

"I think we should paint the triplet's room." I said suddenly.

"I'm allergic to work." He answered immediately.

"Come on. It could be fun." I wrapped my arms around his waist, pulling him towards me. I began to whisper in his ear. "We could have Gohan baby sit them, and we could paint. Then afterwards, we could come back in here…" I trailed off and let him think about it for a moment.

He cleared his throat anxiously.

"And we might just hold each other…" I stared down at him, my arms looped around him, resting on the small of his back. Then, when I roughly grabbed his ass, he gasped in spite of himself. I pulled his much smaller frame to my own.

"Kakorot!" He growled and pushed my hands away.

"And we could lie on the bed,"

He apparently didn't realize how close we were to the bed, for he seemed surprised when I pushed him down onto it.

"And we could take off each other's clothes…" I demonstrated by pulling off my shirt. His hands roamed across my chest as if he couldn't help himself. I slipped my fingers into his pants and pulled at them a little.

He seemed pretty willing to do whatever I wanted tonight, for he needed very little coaxing.

I pulled off his shirt, savoring his tight muscles that flexed and relaxed with every move he made. I finished by taking off his pants and tossing them onto the floor.

He watched me as if he was expecting me to do something that was going to upset him and excite him at the same time.

"And maybe we'll kiss…" I went on and pressed my lips to his. He kissed me back, hungrily trying to egg me on. I stuck my tongue in his mouth. He sucked on it, nipping slightly.

I pulled away to talk some more, and he continued down my neck. A little distractedly, I said, "And I might hold you down,"

I pinned him to the bed. I could see the curiosity as well as the slight annoyance building in his eyes.

"Or maybe I won't," I let him go and laced my hand with his. "Who knows?"

He seemed like he was going to say something, but I silenced him with a bruising kiss.

I reached between us, grabbed one of his legs, and flipped him onto his side. I pulled away. "And then I might get rough,"

I smacked his ass hard enough to make him jerk. He had known it was coming, but had not been ready for the sheer force of it.

"Kakorot," He snarled, aggravated, "Don't…!"

I cut him off with another smack. "And then maybe I'll stop." I hit him one more time. "After one more." I winked at him.

"I'm not going to…"

I cut him off again by turning him back over onto his back and getting right up into his face. "And then I'll be really gentle," I kissed the end of his nose and his forehead. I lay our clasped hands up near our heads as I ran my fingers through his hair.

I abruptly moved backwards, and settled myself between his muscular thighs. I released his hand and got my pants off quickly. It was times like these I wished I had a pair of the break-away pants, like the basketball players did.

I lay back down onto him gently, and rested my head on his chest. I listened to his heart for a moment. He seemed fidgety and unwilling to just rest for a moment.

"Can you…" I got up off him, cutting his sentence short once again.

I pushed into him rather roughly. He gasped sharply and gritted his teeth, bracing himself. "And then we'll probably finish in a position like this." I whispered to him and began to move.

I laced our fingers together as we went on. I hadn't prepared him at all and hadn't given him a warning, so at first it was rough and difficult. After a while, though, it became easier when sweat and some blood lubricated us.

I devoured his lips when he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to get past the wall of pain and find the pleasure.

I kissed his face to distract him, "You're okay," I muttered to him, "You're alright… Shh, shh, shh…"

I assumed it hurt quiet a bit to make love without any kind of lubrication. But he just hated it so much when I did lubricate him; I hardly did so any more. He didn't seem to care that I no longer used the lubrication; but when I saw that look on his face, my heart just broke for him.

After a few moments his face relaxed and he opened his eyes again. He was okay now.

He began to vocalize his pleasure. He purred and moaned my name into my ear.

This only encouraged me to move faster and to push harder.

He pushed back on me, meeting me every time in the middle.

"You think," He began, his voice hitching every time we came back together, "It will turn out _exactly _like this?"

I put a hand on his hip, gripping it tightly. "Yes," I said distractedly, "Except you might be tied up."

He half-laughed half-gasped as he came closer to completion. "I don't think so," He managed to spit out before we finished.

I pulled out, but did not push off him. I lay my head back on his torso, not even caring about the cum between us that slid across my chest. I could feel his heart slowing down, until it reached a slow almost pendulum-like rhythm.

I felt myself falling asleep almost immediately.

To my surprise, he wrapped his arms around my shoulders and began to run his fingers through my hair. "Okay," He said suddenly.

I was confused. I looked up at him. "Okay, what?"

"Okay, I'll help paint the damned room. Wasn't that what you wanted?"

I grinned and kissed him. "I was thinking orange."

"_No_." He said sternly. "Not orange."

I frowned slightly. "What's wrong with orange?"

"It's the color of hostility." He explained. "And besides, I don't want to be blinded every time I go in there. Blue would be better."

"_Everyone's_ room is blue."

"It can't be pink or yellow. Too girly." He thought for a moment. "Purple."

"So purple's not a girly color?"

"Dark purple is the color of royalty."

I shook my head. "How about green?"

He thought it over and then shrugged. "I like green."

I smiled. "I like green too."


	15. Frustration

Gohan agreed to watch the triplets for the afternoon the next day. He didn't mind watching them; they were still at the phase when they were cute and hardly obnoxious at all. He didn't seem to have any problem with accepting that they were his half-siblings.

Goten did, though. He pretty much ignored them. I think he was jealous that they where having a normal life, while he had never gotten the chance.

When Gohan arrived to pick them up, they immediately began talking up a storm. He understood most of what they said, but some of it when right past him.

The triplets had a problem with talking to people. I blame Vegeta, personally. They didn't understand the fact that not everyone spoke Saiyan, and that they couldn't say most of their sentence in English or Japanese, and then the rest in Saiyan. Even I had trouble understanding them, at times. To them, they were just words that could be put together any way they wanted.

I was getting better though. I knew enough Saiyan to carry a conversation for a few minutes. Pretty soon, we would have like a secret language that only our family understood.

We went and got the paint, and then came back and sat around for a while. Work was a lot less glamorous then I thought it would be. Eventually, though, I managed to get both of us motivated enough to open the cans and start working.

"The Prince of Saiyan's; painting a child's room." Vegeta muttered to himself as he painted.

I laughed slightly. "I bet you never thought your life would be like this thirty years ago, did you?"

He didn't respond to this. After a moment, I realized I upset him.

I turned to him. There was a deep frown plastered on his face. His eyes were cloudy; lost in thought.

"I'm sorry, I didn't…" I began and put down the roller. I took a step toward him.

He stepped back without turning to meet my gaze. We stood in silence for a moment before he said, "You're right, though. I didn't think things would turn out like this."

I took another step and this time he didn't step away. He allowed me to pull him to my chest.

"Thirty years ago," He went on, "I would have done anything to be the best. I would have cheated, maimed, raped, stole. Lied." His eyes met mine for the first time. "Killed." He paused. "But now… I guess I've given up. What's important when you're young is never the same thing when you get older. Even if I'm unable to be the best, and even if I can not learn from my mistakes, no matter how many I make; it just doesn't _matter_… anymore."

I knew that this was almost completely my fault. I wondered if he still blamed me. Before I could ask him, he went on.

"If things had been different…" He stopped, and then tried again, "If I had been able to beat you, and you just rolled over and died, I would have been the best." There was no anger in his voice; this was a fact that both of us knew to be true. "I would be something else. I would never have known when to stop. I would have become… unquenchable."

I nodded. He went on.

"And you crippled me." His head cocked, waiting for a reaction and receiving none. "You and your god-damned sense of right and wrong. You made me into this," He jabbed a thumb into his chest. There was some spite in his voice, but it was half-hearted, as if he were forcing it. He fell silent for a moment, his arms dropping, before he continued. "And now… it doesn't matter anymore." He finished in a whisper.

I wondered if this was his way of thanking me, or of simply telling me what he thought if me. Whatever he intended to say seemed to fade away after a few moments.

I sat down on the floor, and he fallowed with me; not wanting to let go. He lay himself against my chest, listening to my heart, it seemed.

"How…" He began, "Do you do it?"

I was forced to ask. "Do what?"

"How do you deny what you were bred to do? How do you go against your nature day after day and still function perfectly?"

I thought about this for a long time before I answered. "I'm not sure I _do_ function perfectly. I didn't know anything about myself before you got here; and before that, I was as I was. My world was pretty simple. But then you… complicated everything."

I didn't mean to seem condescending, but I think he interpreted it as such.

But what I said was true. He had complicating everything. Everything about him was complex. The way he thought, the way he acted, the way he felt. His sense of logic. His understanding of the world.

Unintentionally, we sighed at the same time. Neither acknowledged the action; but simply accepted it.

"The worst thing is that I haven't felt bad until now." He went on as if he were talking to himself. "I haven't felt any kind of guilt since I was a child. I just blamed all my actions on other people… I never _needed_ to feel guilt." He pulled away and looked me straight in the eye. "But now…" He let his head drop slightly. "I don't know."

"It doesn't matter any more?" I offered.

He shook his head. "Now… I realize that everything I've ever done was for my own selfish reasons. To get closer to what _I_ wanted, what _I_ cared about. And now… I…" he trailed off, unable to admit to me what he so desperately wanted to communicate.

I knew what he was trying to say, though. He hated himself; I knew this to be true ever since I had met him; he hated himself. The guilt, and the anger, and the hate was killing him. He hated everything about himself that I loved so unconditionally.

He was almost like he was suffocating himself; not allowing himself to breath even for a moment. Now allowing himself to let go.

I laced my fingers with his, and he stopped trying to talk. He understood that I understood.

"Are you looking for forgiveness?" I asked quietly.

His eyes flashed up into mind, and then his whole head turned to me. "Forgiveness?" He repeated as if he didn't understand the meaning of the word. He cocked his head. "From who?"

I blinked. "From… everyone. Everyone you've ever hurt… Isn't that what you mean?"

He stared at me for a moment as if completely lost. "Forgiveness is not something I will ever receive." He said this as if it were a fact, and not just his own personal belief. "True forgiveness of sins only happens in fairy tails and movies."

I frowned slightly. "But… if you get forgiveness, you can stop feeling guilty."

He took on a look as if he were in awe of me. "I wish my world was as simple as yours was, Kakorot." With that, he untangled his hand from mine and lay back on the carpet, staring up.

My frown deepened. "What do you mean 'simple'?"

"I mean everything is so black and white in your world. In real life, things are much more complicated."

I wouldn't have gotten so angry if he had been less blunt about his answer. "Everything isn't 'black and white' in my world. If you're forgiven, then guilt goes away. It isn't my fault if you have no interest in getting forgiveness; even to relieve your suffering."

He sat bolt upright. "No interest?" He asked as if astounded, "Kakorot, I have spent the last ten _years_ asking for forgiveness! The guilt is still there! The guilt is not going to go away just because I ask it to! You're pea-sized understanding of suffering pales in comparison to my own!"

I crossed my arms, glaring at him. His rage was still bouncing back and forth within him, daring me to challenge him further.

I stood up to leave the room. He was on his feet in seconds.

"I'm not finished yet! You don't even-" he began.

I turned back around. "That's the problem! You're _never_ finished! You just keep biting and biting until the subject is exhausted! Just let it go!"

"Let it go?!" He roared, "You challenge my interest in forgiveness and my concept of suffering, and then say 'let it go'?!"

"Yeah!" I yelled back, "Just let it go! You get so worked up over nothing!"

He felt silent. Dangerously silent. I could practically hear the sound of the hair on the back of my neck raising. "Nothing." He spat, as if it were the foulest word he'd ever heard in his life. "_Nothing_."

He turned around slowly, and began to walk down the hall. He turned back around suddenly and smashed his fist onto the living room table, shattering the wood as if it were glass.

"You!" He pointed at me, "_You_ can not even _begin_ to understand 'nothing'. Nothing is when you break a nail, or trip over a rock! Annihilation of your people, the assassination of your King, and twenty years of _hell_ is not _nothing_!"

He seemed finished now. He was panting, his anger having destroyed his sense of control.

"Da?" A tiny voice asked.

We turned at the same time to the front door. The triplets were standing there at Gohan's feet, watching with wide, terrified eyes.

Gohan too looked as if he didn't know what to do. He seemed frozen in contemplation.

Vegeta dropped his arms and sighed deeply, rubbing at his face. He sat down on the couch, completely drained.

I uncrossed my arms and beckoned for them to come inside. I nodded at Gohan to leave.

He looked as though he would protest; but did as I asked anyway. The triplets held their ground, not moving a muscle.

"Come here, babies," I said gently. "It's okay." I glanced at Vegeta. His head was in his hands.

Hesitantly, they ventured towards me. They were careful to stay clear of the table as well as Vegeta.

Everyone was silent for a moment, before Vienna spoke up. "Are you sad, Da?"

Vegeta did not respond.

She was on the verge of tears. The worry in her voice alone with heartbreaking. "If you're sad, you can sleep with my bunny," She took a single step towards him. "He always makes me happy."

His arms dropped from his face. He met her gaze with a stony, calculating look. "I'm not sad." He said flatly.

The tears began to fall from her tiny face. "Then what are you?"

"I'm… frustrated." He said thoughtfully.

"Well… when you're frust'ated, it makes me sad." She decided and seemed to shrink back under his blank stare.

He cocked his head, his jaw clenching and then relaxing. He beckoned for her to come to him. She went to his arms, her tiny frame swallowed by his own. "All of you. Hurry up." He demanded, and we all stepped forward to join them.

"I'm sorry." I said into his ear over the triplet's heads.

He nodded. "Me too." He muttered.

"So you're not frust'ated anymore?" Lysander asked, pulling away slightly to look up at the two of us.

We looked at each other, and shook our heads.

And then, just like that, nothing mattered anymore. The anger and the hatred had all died out for the time being. There was no more spite, no more resentment. It was sure to return; but right now, it just didn't matter.


	16. Palaver

The next morning was a brand new day.

We finished the triplet's room, and were surprised at how good it turned out. The babies were thrilled too. They had completely forgotten about yesterday's incident. They played in their room almost the entire day; until they grew hungry.

"They have to start school at some point, you know." I said suddenly.

He looked up at me from the newspaper. "What for?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "That's what humans do. They send their kids to school so they can learn stuff."

He snorted. "They can learn more here in a day than at some 'school' in an entire week."

I nodded in agreement. "I know; but think about this. They'll be gone. All day long." I scooting closer to him and rubbed my nose against his stubbly cheek.

At first I thought the little indication had went right over his head, for his expression did not change. Finally, his jaw twitched. "Fine. They'll go to school."

I moved lower and kissed down his neck. I pulled his shirt back to get as his shoulder as well. We might have gotten further if the babies had not interrupted.

"Papa!" One of the boys cried. It was hard to distinguish their voices sometimes when I wasn't looking at them.

I pulled away from Vegeta at once and looked down at them, trying to look as though I had not been doing anything.

They didn't seem to notice what had happened. "Look it!" Lysander cried and showed me some kind of strange rock.

I took it from him and examined it. All of a sudden, a head poked out of the rock, and then quickly dove back in.

"What is it?" Vienna asked in her amazingly high voice.

"It's a turtle," I responded, turning it over. "Where did you get it?"

"From outside!" Lysander said excitedly. "It was in the water, and I went in and got it!" His story seemed to be true because he was soaking wet from the waist down. He put his hands up for it back.

I handed it back. "When did you go outside?"

"Can we keep it?" Vienna asked, seeming to disregard my question.

I blinked, and then looked to Vegeta. He seemed not to be paying attention. He shook his head suddenly.

"What?" He asked.

"Can we keep it?" Lysander repeated her question.

He stared at them for a moment and then shrugged. "If you can keep it alive."

They jumped up and down, thrilled. "Yay!"

"Don't drop him," I said, grabbing the poor thing before it hit the ground. I put it back in Lys's arms. "You have to be gentle."

"Okay, we'll be gent-ile," He promised. "We need a box to keep him in!"

They all started chatting at once; about what to call it, where to keep it, what side of the room it would stay on, who would play with it first.

I found them a clear plastic box to keep it in and filled it with water. They all unanimously decided that the turtle's name would be Turtle, and that the tank would stay on a table near the window so that he wasn't on any 'side' of the room.

A rock was placed in the middle of Turtle's new home, and a few bugs put into his tank.

All three of them gathered around the tank, watching it as if it were the most fascinating thing they had ever seen. When he would move, even just a little bit, they would gasp and then giggle at each other.

"They're easy to please," Vegeta said dryly when they were out of ear-shot. "What kind of name is Turtle?"

I laughed slightly. "Leave them alone; they're little. Where you all that creative when you were that young?"

He shrugged, dismissing the subject. "I believe we were doing something?"

I blinked at him slowly, trying to recall. "We were talking about school, and then…" I trailed off. "Oh!"

I pushed him onto the couch, and then sat down next to him. My tongue was in his mouth and my hand up his shirt before he could do much at all. I ran my thumb over his nipple until it grew hard before I moved on to the other one.

The pitter patter of tiny feet pulled us apart once more.

Vienna stood before us with a book clasped in her tiny arms. There was a huge grin on her face, showing off a few of her new teeth. "Da, will you read this to me?"

I could just imagine his inward groan.

He nodded mutely, unable to say no to her. She hopped onto the couch between us and opened the book as he readjusted his shirt.

I stood up, taking my leave. He watched me go, disappointment in his eyes. I gave him a teasing look, shrugged, and then disappeared into the bedroom. I imagined the look of dismay on his face now.

Damn it, I was horny too. But that was the price of having children. You had to prioritize.

Maybe the book wouldn't take that long to read to her.

I didn't want to get rid of my erection myself; that would be a waste. I decided instead to take a quick nap and then see what I should do.

Before long, my eyes fell shut.

Not ten minutes later, though, I heard whispering.

"Maybe you should poke him?" A voice said in a hushed tone.

"But he's asleep," Another voice protested.

"What if he's dead?" The first voice asked.

All of a sudden, the voice was directly in my ear. "Papa, are you dead?"

I jumped, kicking off the covers and sitting straight up.

The boys sat back on the bed, eyes wide with bewilderment. "I guess you're not dead." Aizel stated.

Aizel didn't say much, but when he did, it usually was to state the obvious in a manner that seemed somewhat sarcastic; whether he knew what sarcasm was or not.

"What are you guys doing?" I asked with a yawn, stretching and cracking my back.

"Looking for fun," Lysander replied. "Da's reading to Vienna, so we came to play with you; so you wouldn't be lonely."

"I see. You want to play, huh?" I paused for a moment, threw them both onto their backs, and began to tickle them.

They shrieked with laugher, their faces becoming bright red. I stopped to let them breathe for a moment, and then continued.

They tried to form sentences, but they were too distracted by the tickling.

Soon, they were tired and all laughed out. They lay there, panting for a moment.

All of a sudden, Aizel sat up. "Papa, I gotta go potty."

None of them were potty trained yet, so it was either my or Vegeta's duty to take them to the bathroom whenever requested. Aizel had the most trouble though, because of some irrational fear of the toilet.

"Okay," I said, getting to my feet. He grabbed my index and middle finger and dragged me to the bathroom with him.

When we came into the bathroom, he froze and turned to me.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

He fidgeted. "I don't remember what to do." He blurted out as if panicked.

I sighed and stood him in front of the toilet. "Remember what I showed you? You aim into the bowl," I expected him to be able to figure out the rest, but he just stood there, pants down to his ankles. "And you just… go." I didn't know how to explain it in more detail than that. How does one tell someone how to pee?

He swayed suddenly, and then stepped away from the toilet. "I can't do it!" he cried and then ran out of the bathroom, leaving his pants behind.

"Aizel!" I called after him. "Come back here!"

His feet pounded on the wood floor as he came into the living room. I chased after him until he managed to get the front door open. He abruptly began to go on the ground.

I sighed.

"He did it again?" Vegeta asked calmly, turning away from the book for a moment.

I nodded. "One day… he _will_ go in the toilet."

He shrugged. "If you say so." He turned back to the book.

When he'd finished, I took him back into the bathroom to wash his hands. He wouldn't make eye contact with me; as if he knew I was disappointed.

"It was a good try, buddy," I said gently. "At least you tried."

He cocked his head and then jumped from the stool, away from the sink. He dried off his hands on his shirt. He glanced over at the toilet suspiciously.

I wondered why it scared him so much. Vienna and Lysander had no problem with the toilet; although Lysander missed sometimes.

After we finished, it was about nap time. Or 'Hell Hour', as we came to call it.

This was the time when they all reverted back to their Saiyan instincts. They would do or say anything to get out of a nap. Vienna was the worst of them.

She had somewhat of a silver tongue; knowing exactly what to say in order to get what she wanted.

The boys were much more predictable, though, because they always did the same thing. They would first try to run, and then they would cry, and then they would throw a tantrum, and then they would try and run again.

Same thing every day.

Today, though, the boys had run off into different directions down the hall. Vegeta chased after them, swearing the entire time.

He wasn't allowed to deal with Vienna; he was too easily swayed by what she said.

"Papa, I'm not sleepy," She insisted, "My feet aren't tired." She showed me one of her tiny feet.

I nodded. "Lay down," I said gently, "And I'll read you a story once your brothers come back."

"Da already read me a story," She said, standing up on her bed and bouncing a little. "I don't need another one until bed time. And I can't sleep unless I have a story."

I wondered if that statement made any sense to her; and apparently it did. "How about this. You take a nap now, and then we can go swimming."

She shook her head. "You'll have to do better than that."

Vegeta came in with Aizel under his arm and Lysander over his shoulder. He threw them both down onto their beds. They laughed giddily, all worked up now.

He gave me a sour, unsure look. "Uh... someone's here for you."

I cocked my head and then looked out into the living room. A head of black hair turned to look at me. Chi-chi.

I quickly disappeared back into the bedroom. "What is she doing here?" I whispered to him, almost as if it were his fault.

He gave me a look. "How should I know? Go ask her."

I shook my head. "Tell her to leave,"

"You tell her to leave!" He hissed and then shoved me out of the bedroom.

I smiled nervously at her. "Hi, Chi-chi,"

She nodded. "Hello, Goku." She glanced around the living room skeptically. "This is a nice place. You keep it very clean," She said as if she were surprised.

"Well, with little kids, you have to. They put in their mouths whatever they can find." I laughed nervously.

She took a seat on the couch and stared at me; observing me.

I shifted under her gaze.

"I came here," She began softly, "To apologize to you."

I was taken aback. "To me…?"

"Yes. I wanted to say that I'm sorry I haven't been the wife you were looking for, and I'm sorry that I jumped to conclusions when you told me what was going on." Her eyes met my own. "Bulma told me about what happened. I understand that it isn't your fault."

I was speechless. I had not been man enough to go over and simply talk to her, and here she was, asking for my forgiveness. My shoulders slumped and I took a seat next to her on the couch. "I'm really, really sorry."

"Me too." She agreed and then paused. "When did we fall out of love?"

That was a good question. It had to have been years ago.

She saw the look on my face and then sighed. "A while ago, huh?" She paused again. "Maybe we were never really in love to begin with."

I shook my head. "That's not true. You know that's not true."

She nodded, but didn't seem to believe me. "How're the children?"

"They're fine. They're taking a nap."

She smiled suddenly. "I remember when Gohan and Goten used to take naps. I used to have to fight them and bride them just so they would actually take one." She seemed sad suddenly.

I heard some shuffling and turned to see four heads of dark hair staring at us from the bedroom quizzically. Vegeta had a distasteful, yet curious expression on his face.

I motioned for them to come sit with us.

The babies took this as a chance to not take their naps, and came bounding into the room.

"Hi!" Vienna chirped, half sliding on the wood floor before us. "What's your name?"

"Chi-chi," She replied warmly. "What's yours?"

"Vienna!"

"I'm Lysander!"

She turned to Aizel who was always the last to introduce himself.

"Aizel," He said with a shy sigh, his eyes dropping to the floor.

"Nice to meet you all." She turned and nodded at Vegeta too. He nodded back a greeting, which astounded me even more. "How are you doing?"

"Good," he answered gruffly, shifting his weight to his other leg, and crossing his arms.

Lysander crawled up onto the couch and scratched at his head. "You look like Gohan!" he cried.

The other two began to prattle, agreeing with him wholeheartedly.

"I'm his mommy." Chi-chi said with a smile.

They turned to each other and then giggled at some unknown secret joke.

"What?" She asked, her smile widening.

"We don't have a mommy!" Vienna replied breathlessly and they laughed even further.

I wondered why this was funny, but apparently it was. They didn't elaborate any further, so no one pressed the issue.

Chi-chi stayed and chatted with us and the children for a while; until it was almost dinner time. When she was getting ready to leave, Aizel announced that he had to go potty.

I sighed loudly. "Okay, let's try this again, Ai."

"Is he scared of the potty?" Chi-chi asked. The accuracy of her answer was surprising.

"Yeah; how did you know?" I blinked at her.

"Gohan was the same way. If you put some Cherri O's into the toilet, and tell him to hit them, I bet he'll do it." With that, she waved good-bye and disappeared out the door.

I turned to Vegeta. "Cherri O's?"

He shrugged, and went to make some food as I dealt with Aizel.

I grabbed the box of Cherri O's and went into the bathroom. I put a handful of the cereal into the toilet bowl.

At first, he didn't know what I wanted him to do. But then he laughed when the Cherri O's formed a smiley face in the bowl. He then began to go.

And for the first time, he didn't run out of the room, start crying, or claim he didn't have to go anymore. He just went.

I grinned down at him. Maybe Chi-chi wasn't so bad after all.


	17. One Leap at a Time

Before I knew it, four years had passed. Time had seemed to completely escape me. I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out how time had passed so quickly.

The triplets were now five years old. For five years, Vegeta and I had raised three babies into toddlers; and they were still alive, which was the most amazing part.

At lost had happened in the past four years.

We'd grown older and wiser, and, through trial and error, had pretty much figured out how to deal with life's everyday challenges.

Three years ago, Gohan married Videl; and then the fallowing year, I got my first grandbaby, Pan. She is just as beautiful as all the rest of them; jet black hair, wide dark eyes, a tiny little mouth that quivers whenever she's upset. She is defiantly one of my favorite people. She was now, really, the only thing that tied me and Chi-chi together.

Chi-chi and I had gotten a divorce; which no one really cared about but her. She threw out all my stuff onto the lawn, waited for it to rain, and then called me to come pick it up. But that's Chi-chi for you.

The triplets had learned a lot and had grown quiet a bit in the past four years; even though they were a bit small compared to most kids their age. Vegeta said it was because Saiyans did most of their growing during puberty; but I think it's because Vegeta himself is so small.

But today was a far new adventure.

Today was their first day of kindergarten. We were taking them to Bulma's house to drop them off. We decided it would be a good idea for the triplets and Bra to all take the bus together, so that none of them get kidnapped.

Well, Bulma and I thought it was a good idea; Vegeta thought it was a waste of time.

When we touched down, and the concept of going to school became more and more real to them, they started asking questions even more furiously than before.

"What are we going to school for?" Lys asked, grabbing onto my hand as we walked up the sidewalk.

"So you can learn things." I replied.

"Like what?" Vienna asked, taking my other hand.

"Like…" I trailed off. I'd never gone to school. I didn't know the first thing about school. "Like all sorts of stuff. Like how to read and write."

"I know how to do that!" Vienna cried and the boys nodded.

"You'll learn some other stuff too; stuff Da hasn't taught you yet."

Their eyes grew wide. "Like what?" Lys asked again excitedly.

I leaned down like I was going to tell them some forbidden secret, and then said, "You'll have to find out once you get there."

They all sighed melodramatically. "Okay…" They said in unison.

I straightened once Vegeta opened the door. "Like what?" He asked me as they ran inside to find Bra.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I was trying to get them excited about school."

He frowned. "And here I thought you knew some fantastic secret."

I shook my head with a smile. "Nope."

Inside, the triplets had crowded around her as Bra sat on the floor while Bulma was trying to get her shoes on. Every time Bulma put one on, and moved on to the other, Bra would pull it off and laugh.

"Da taught me how to tie my shoes, Momma!" Vienna cried. Bulma smiled and congratulated her before she ran off down the hall, chasing the boys.

Bra turned and saw us for the first time.

"Da!" She hopped to her feet, shoes or not, and ran to Vegeta, hugging him around the leg. "I haven't seen you in forever!"

He picked her up and placed her on his hip. "I saw you two days ago."

"But only for like ten minutes!"

"It was an hour and a half," he protested.

She gave him a sour look and then hugged him around the neck. "Are you going to school with me?"

"No; I'm going to stay here with your mom."

"Will you be here when I get back?"

He nodded.

She turned to me. "Are you going to be here too, Papa?"

All of them called me Papa now; even Pan. Sometimes even Bulma caught herself calling me that.

I smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I'll be here."

"Okay! Bye Da!" She kissed his forehead and then wriggled until he put her down. She ran off to play with the triplets.

"Bra, I need to put your shoes on!" Bulma cried after her, but she was already gone. She sighed and stood up. "She's getting on my last nerves today."

I laughed. "This early?"

She turned to us with a smile that was no longer awkward or forced; but still distant. "Nice to see you guys again."

Vegeta nodded in response.

"Is Bra excited about school?" I asked. "The kids have been talking about it for weeks."

Bulma nodded. "Oh, yes. She's so excited that now she gets to be a big kid and go to school like Trunks and Goten."

Trunks and Goten are both in college; Trunks is going into business and Goten doesn't know what he wants to be yet.

I crossed my arms. "What does she want to be when she grows up?"

Bulma paused for a moment to think. "An actress, a veterinarian, a marine biologist and she wants to work at 7 Eleven because she likes their Slurpies."

I laughed just as the boys came into the room.

Lysander was chasing after Aizel, who had apparently taken his book bag and wouldn't give it back.

As they ran past, Vegeta snatched the book back and handed it back to Lysander, who was pretty frustrated as it was.

Like Vienna, Lysander was a little slow to anger. But when he was angry, his wrath came quick and hard.

"What do you want to be when you grow up, Lysander?" Bulma asked, crouching a little.

He thought for a moment. "A fireman!" Then he decried, "No, wait, a policeman! And a super hero!" He changed his mind once more, "No, I want to be a crocodile hunter!"

She nodded. "That sounds like fun… What about you Aizel?"

He looked down at the floor, his former bully-like demeanor dropping at once. "I don't know." He said quietly. "A painter?"

Before she could respond, Bra came running into the room, Vienna in tow.

"The bus is here!" She cried jumping up and down, "The bus is here!"

Bulma gave a panicked gasp and then practically threw her daughter to the floor and shoved her shoes onto her feet.

"Get your stuff together guys!" She said to the triplets. "What are the rules about school?"

"No fighting, yelling, screaming, running, throwing energy blasts, flying or hitting." They all replied in unison.

"Good," She responded, pulling Bra to her feet. "Is everyone ready?"

"My shoes feel funny!" Bra cried, pointing to her shoes, which were on the wrong feet.

Vegeta sighed and got down onto his knees as Bulma pulled off both her shoes again. He helped her get them on the right feet and tie them. They glanced at each other awkwardly.

"Okay, let's go to the bus, guys."

Everyone had a buddy; Lysander held Bra's hand, while Aizel held Vienna's. It was a perfect system. They walked together while we stood at the front door, making sure they got to the bus unscathed.

I found myself wishing that they would turn around and insist that they never go to school and we all go home and they would not grow up for another few years.

When they did turn, they called out their good-byes. "Bye Momma! Bye Papa! Bye Da!" and then they got onto the bus. The bus sped off, turned a corner, and disappeared.

Bulma sighed suddenly. "They're so big now;"

I nodded. "I know. It seems like just yesterday they were too little to even walk; now they're going to school all day."

"This is parenthood." She said gently. "One leap at a time." She disappeared into the house.

I looked to Vegeta, who was still staring off down the street, thinking. "You okay?" I asked.

He cocked his head. "I missed a lot with Trunks, didn't I? I don't remember seeing his first steps, or seeing him off to school, or teaching him to do anything. I was there, but… I wasn't." He shook his head.

I clasped a hand to his shoulder. "I screwed up with my kids too. Especially Goten. I'm even worst, because I messed up twice on two separate kids."

He nodded absently and turned to go back into the house. "We're not screwing them up, are we?"

I scratched the back of my head. "I don't know. I think only time will tell."

All of a sudden, the doorbell rang.

Vegeta turned back around as if this were still his house and opened the door.

Gohan stood there with Pan in his arms. There was a frazzled, worried look in his eye. "Videl broke her leg," He stated simply and motioned to the car were she sat quietly with her arms above her head as if she were in pain, "I have to take her to the hospital. I need someone to watch Pan for a few hours?" He ended the sentence as more of a question.

Bulma rushed by with a bag in one hand and a suitcase in the other. "What's wrong?"

"Videl broke her leg." He repeated. "Can you watch Pan for me?"

She had a look of dismay for a moment. "I have a meeting in ten minutes,"

I held out my arms. "We'll take her."

"Thanks, dad," He replied and handed her over. "She'll take a nap at eleven, before lunch. I'll be back as soon as I can." He turned to Pan. "Papa's going to watch you for a little while, okay?"

"Otay," She said in a casual, unworried tone.

"Mom's going to be fine, so don't worry, alright?"

"Otay," She said again, still unconcerned.

"And Daddy will be right back once-"

"Just go!" Bulma, Vegeta and I said at the same time.

He seemed surprised, and then turned and rushed back to the car. With one final glace back at us, he sped off toward the hospital.

Bulma looked at her watch. "I'm going to be so late," She muttered and went to her own car. "You're welcome to stay, but don't destroy anything! I'll be back before the babies get home!"

And then, all of a sudden, it was just me, Vegeta, and Pan. All alone. In a huge mansion.

"Uh… What do you want to do now, Pan?" I asked.

"What time is it, Papa?"

I glanced at a clock. "8:13,"

She suddenly became excited. "When the clock says 8, 3, 0, then it's time for Barney!"

I saw Vegeta twitch out of the corner of my eye. "So you want to watch Barney?"

"Otay," she said that a lot; obviously Gohan and Videl used it a lot around her.

"Are you hungry?"

She shook her head, and then brightened. "Today, mom made pancakes, and then she dropped an egg on the floor, and it went _splat_, and then she slipped on it. She told me to go get daddy, so I did, and then daddy took me over here." She paused. "When's he coming back?"

I shrugged. "A few hours, I guess."

She frowned. "Otay, then we got to have a lot of fun before they come back!"

I nodded and set her down on the floor.

She managed to get the TV turned on, and it happened to be the news.

She sat there and stared at it for a moment, transfixed. "That's Grandpa!" She cried suddenly.

Sure enough, Hercule appeared on screen with his balding head and that wide cocky grin on his face.

Vegeta made a gagging sound, so I jabbed him in the ribs with my elbow.

He was talking about the next world tournament, which would take place next year.

I turned to Vegeta. "We should take the triplets to fight in the tournament."

He snorted. "They'll only have competition against each other; all those other brats won't stand a chance."

I nodded. "But it will be fun. And then we can beat the crap out of each other in front of millions of people; just like old times."

He didn't need to think it over. "Sounds like a blast."

"Can I fight too?" Pan asked, turning away from the TV. "I can punch and I can block! Watch!"

She ran to me, and took a defensive stance.

I mimicked her and crouched down. She threw a few punches that were nearly perfect, and then blocked a few of my attacks. "That's great, Pan,"

She straightened and then grinned. "My mom taught me that!"

"Did your dad teach you anything?"

She seemed to think about it. "No; he's always too busy with work."

My smile faltered slightly.

This casual statement troubled me deeply. Gohan was doing the exact same thing to Pan that I had done to him; he was pushing her away, just like I had pushed him.

I wondered if she was starved for his attention like he had been starved for mine. I wondered if, at some point, she would no longer care what he thought or whether he was even around; like Gohan had stopped caring. I wondered if she would grow to live her life with him on the outside, and feeling like what she did didn't matter to him, or to anyone.

I sat down on the couch, lost in thought. I had fucked up. I had fucked up more than I had ever realized until now. Not only had I ruined Gohan's childhood; but I had also made it impossible for him to be a good father to his own child.

I sighed deeply.

Pan didn't seem to notice my sudden mood swing, and instead turned back to the TV to listen to Hercule some more.

Vegeta sat down next to me. "You alright?" He asked in Saiyan.

By now, I could pretty much speak Saiyan fluently. It was hard at first, but once you hear it enough, it becomes pretty easy. I still didn't know all the words, but I could guess what he was saying most of the time when I didn't understand.

I shook my head. "I was thinking about how I screwed Pan over,"

We were speaking Saiyan, but Pan turned at her name. She stared at us for a moment, head cocked, before she turned back to the TV.

"How do you mean?"

"Gohan's doing the same thing to her as I did to him." I explained.

He thought about it, and then nodded.

We didn't say anything for a long time. Eventually, Barney came on and Pan forgot all about Hercule and the tournament.

She stood before the TV, laughing, giggling, and jumping around. It was the perfect show to raise children with; there was nothing scary, nothing profane, and it taught them things.

Before I knew it, it was eleven' o'clock. We had watched TV for so long, that my mind had partially died and my sense of time had become askew.

Pan was much easier to get to take a nap than the triplets; maybe because she was just one baby.

When I returned to the living room, Vegeta was still there, staring at the TV with hallow, emotionless eyes.

I sat next to him and turned to look at him. We hadn't talked since that morning, and all day, I had been thinking about Gohan; and Goten too.

"When you left," he said suddenly in English, "For all that time, I was really pissed at you. I was so pissed that you left your family behind to go 'play in the Spirit World.' I was pissed because I never got the chance to beat you at anything. And I was pissed because you didn't even seem to care that you didn't intent to come back. So then when you did come back," He stopped and turned to me, "I was so shocked I couldn't even be mad at you anymore. I was just glad that you did come back."

"So…" I trailed off, "You missed me?"

"No," He spat, "I was just… glad I had someone to spar with." He crossed his arms, a light blush staining his cheeks. "And I think…" He stopped again, looking away and sinking further down onto the couch. "And I think I fell in love with you way back then."

I perked up at this. In love with me then? Back before the business of Rut Season had even come up in conversation? "You were in love with me… before Rut Season?"

His chin fell to his chest and he resembled a child who had been placed on time out. "I don't know. That was before I accepted that love was even a real thing." He glanced up at me quickly. "But yes; I think I was."

I grinned, my mind suddenly burning with desire for him. "I loved you too. I've loved you for a long time."

I lifted his chin and kissed him gently. He moved, setting his knees on either side of me; his arms wrapping around my shoulders. I put my hands on his hips, pulling him closer. He nibbled my lip gently.

Before long, the kiss became increasingly aggressive, until gentle nibbles became harsh bites.

I grabbed his ass, unable to help myself. He pulled away, teeth bore.

"Kakorot, every time!" he cried as I dropped to kiss down his neck.

He hesitated for a moment before going on, "Stop trying to distract me; I'm going to…" He trialed off as I reached his collar bone and scraped my teeth across it gently. "Going to…" He shook his head. He pushed my hands off his ass. "I'm _going_ to hurt you if you don't stop-" He moaned suddenly as I nibbled his ear. He seemed to give up, for he stopped yelling at me.

I pulled at his shirt, kissing over his shoulders and chest. He was shivering; but other than that, he had gone completely still; his back arched towards me, encouraging me to continue. While he was distracted, I snuck my hands back onto his ass. He didn't seem to notice.

My lips came back up to meet his own. He seemed to have forgotten about scolding me, for he didn't object to anything after that.

I pulled him down onto the couch and crawled atop him. My hips pressed his own down onto the soft couch. I pulled away to stare at him.

He went to kiss me again but I pulled away to continue staring.

He looked away at once, eyes falling to the floor. He hated when I looked at him like this.

Even after all these years, which seemed short now, I was still in awe of his beauty. I was still stuck by his perfection. I was still so captivated by everything about him; it was hard to find something I didn't undeniably love.

I touched his face with a few of my fingers and he flinched away out of surprise, before allowing me to continue.

"Have I ever told you…" I asked, running a thumb over his bottom lip, "That you're beautiful?"

He swallowed hard, uncomfortable. I could see he didn't know what to do or how to react. He shook his head quickly.

I kissed his forehead softly and sighed longingly. "You're even more beautiful when you don't know what to say."

He took a deep breath, his chest raising and then falling slowly. "Kakorot…" he paused, unsure if he wanted to continue.

I leaned in, staring at him intently. "Yes?"

His voice dropped to a whisper. "Can you move your knee?"

For a moment, I didn't know what that meant. Then I realized what he wanted me to do, and immediately moved my knee from its position between his legs; where it pressed dangerously against his crotch.

"Sorry," I said with an embarrassed grin.

He shook his head with a sigh of relief. "No harm done."

We laughed, the moment completely ruined.

I caught his lips in one last kiss before I pulled away from him and sat back up. "Pan should be waking up soon," I said casually. I glanced at him.

He was still lying on his back. He had tucked one arm behind his head, and the other rested over his chest.

I wanted nothing more than to go at it right there on Bulma's couch. I wanted to take off his clothes with my teeth. I wanted to kiss every inch of his body. I wanted to feel him from the inside as he moaned and thrashed.

"I'm not going to have sex with you here," He said casually, as if he had told me that the cookies were for _after_ dinner and not a moment before.

I shook my head, pretending not to understand what he meant. I stood up, purposely putting my hand on his thigh near his manhood; making it look like an accident.

He gasped, worried it seemed; that I would hurt him; as well as aroused at the same time.

"Come on, darlin'," I said, ignoring his response, "The babies will be home soon too."

He sat up to fallow me to the door. "'Dar-lin'?" He asked, obviously never hearing the word before.

I laughed and looked out the door at the empty street. He would always be my darlin'; even if he'd never admit to it.


	18. Let Them Eat Cake

The triplets had never been this excited in their entire lives. They skipped and jumped and ran around as if they would burst with adrenaline.

They were so adorable when they were this excited; even though it was pain when I wanted them to sit still.

The whole way there, they kept talking and giggling. Even Aizel, who was not one for talk, was extremely animated.

We touched down on the tiled floor of the world tournament. The triplets resisted the urge to run off and challenge random people to fights.

We discovered at once that we were not the only ones with the idea to come to the tournament. Practically everyone we knew was there; Krillin, Eighteen, Piccolo, Gohan, Pan, Trunks… all of them.

Once they saw us, they ran to greet us.

"Goku, you're going to fight too?" Krillin asked after the casual hellos ensued. His eyes wondered away from me for a moment to look at the little girl in Vegeta's arms as well as the boys at his feet. They all stared at him blankly.

He stepped away from me, uninterested it seemed, in my answer. He didn't need to stoop that low to be on the children's level. "Hey, guys," He said softly.

The boys cocked their heads at the same time and in the same direction. They did a lot of things at the same time; as if they planned their actions to be in sync.

"Mornin'!" Vienna chipped from above them.

He looked up, seeming surprised. "Oh, uh, good morning. What's your name?"

"Vienna," She replied, "Those are my brothers; Lysander and Aizel." She paused for a moment before changing the subject. "Are you going to fight in the tournament?"

He nodded mutely. "Yeah; are you?"

She nodded. "I'm going to win!"

The boys turned at once. "Are not!" They cried.

"Are so!"

"_Are not_!" They insisted.

She leapt from Vegeta's grasp. "Are _so_!"

"And what makes you think you're going to win?" Lysander inquired.

"Because I'm smart," She said bluntly.

He scoffed. "You're not smart! You're just…" He trailed off, thinking, "You're just-"

"A sister!" Aizel finished for him.

They nodded in agreement.

"That was an insult?" She asked, straightening. "Give me a break."

"Guys, be nice." I said gently.

They all turned to me, seeming surprised. "But Da promised twenty whole dollars to the winner!" They proclaimed.

I turned to Vegeta with a glare. "Why?" I asked.

He looked around, pretending to not know who I was talking to. "I don't know what they're talking about."

I sighed and turned back to Krillin. "How have you been Krillin?"

He seemed perplexed. "Ah… good." He beckoned for me to move in closer to him. "Who are these kids?" He whispered.

It donned on me that we had not told anyone else about what had happened. The only people that knew were our families; and Piccolo.

I sighed deeply. "It's a long story. I'll tell you later." And with that, the conversation dropped for another time.

At the moment, I was starving. After we registered, we all went to eat until we couldn't anymore.

The triplets ate a lot; much more than any normal child would, I suppose. The waiters seemed overwhelmed by our presence.

But they were particular about what they ate and how they ate them.

For one, Aizel was diligent about how his food was separated. He would demand separate plates for all the different food that was the same color. One plate would have only green things; another plate only brown; and so on and so forth. If any of the colors were to mix, he became very upset.

And Lysander; he would take all his food and mix it together into a mess before he ate it. I guess he figured that it was all going to the same place, so it didn't really matter.

But Vienna was our little breath of fresh air. She would eat pretty much anything.

I watched as Vienna leaned over the table and put a piece of broccoli onto Aizel's 'white plate'; the plate only used for white food.

He sighed with frustration and threw it back at her. He turned to me, mouth wide. "Papa, she's mixing my colors!" he cried with dismay.

"Vienna, stop mixing his colors. You know he likes it all in a particular order." I said in a tone that was very unthreatening. I took a bite of my hamburger.

She giggled. "I don't care if my colors are mixed," She took a drink of her soda.

He glared at her and took a bite of his chicken, carefully putting it back onto his 'brown plate'.

Lysander managed to snag a whole handful of ketchup packets from the waiter's pocket. He was currently mixing it with his food, creating a pinkish mess on his plate.

"That's ucky, Lysander!" Pan told him with a giggle before she began to do the same with her food.

Aizel rolled his eyes, disgusted that they would mix colors like that.

Once we had eaten, we went outside to wonder a bit before the tournament began.

"Papa my feet hurt!" Lysander suddenly cried and put up his arms.

I picked him up, putting him onto my shoulders.

Aizel saw this, and put his arms up as well; dancing a little bit when I didn't pick him up right away.

Vienna too wanted to be held. It was hard to hold all three of them at the same time, actually. They squirmed a lot, and had the tendency to kick when they were excited.

Before they got too antsy, something caught their attention.

The ice cream man.

They all began talking at once; Bra and Pan joining in on the conversation of nonsense. They went on and on about what kinds of ice cream they wanted, how much money they needed, how they wanted to order it themselves…

I looked at Vegeta, and he shrugged his shoulders, moving to walk away and let me deal with it.

"Hey, guys," I said with sly smile. "Da has all the money in his pocket."

He turned just in time to be tackled to the ground. "Kakorot!" He cried angrily. "Get off me, you brats!"

I stood aside, laughing and they crawled all over him, begging him for the money he didn't even have.

Eventually, he convinced them that he had no cash whatsoever, they dispersed, crowding around Bulma instead.

I helped him to his feet.

"Why?!" He demanded eyes narrowed.

I laughed slightly. "Because it was funny."

He crossed his arms and began to stalk off in some random direction.

I chased after him. "Oh, c'mon! It _was_ funny!"

After they had all received ice cream, and they were all content with their choice, they feel silent, enjoying their treats.

As they were eating, a thought struck Vienna.

"Papa, where do babies come from?" she asked with orange push-pop all over her face.

I glanced at Vegeta, and then to Bulma, and then all the rest of my friends.

"Do they really come from a stort?" She asked when I hesitated.

"A what?" I cocked my head.

"A stort!" She repeated. "It's a big bird that carries around babies to people."

"Oh, a _stork_." I replied. "Yes, babies come from storks." My gaze shifted to Vegeta, pleading for his help. He paid me no mind.

She cocked her head. "But how do _storts_ have baby people?"

"Oh, look; we're at the locker room." I said, pushing her gently off to the door in which Pan and Bra were entering.

She swerved, trying to fallow me into the boy's locker room. "I don't want to go in there. I want to go with you."

"You can't," I said simply.

"Why?"

"Because this side is for boys only."

"So?"

It occurred to me that she may not even realize that she _was _a girl. She lived in a house with four boys; she had never thought of herself as anything but 'one of the guys'.

I crouched down. "Well, you're a girl."

She frowned slightly. "So…?"

"Boys and girls are different."

"How?"

I sighed deeply. "I'll explain it to you later. Just go with Videl, Bra and Pan; we'll meet you on the other side."

She stamped her foot, on the verge of a tantrum. "Explain it to me now!"

"Vienna," Vegeta finally spoke up. "Do as Papa says."

She sighed, her frustration dissipating, and fallowed the other girls into the locker room.

I straightened. "That was awkward."

He nodded, not replying.

Once inside the tournament walls, my adrenaline began to pump as well. I couldn't wait until the adult competition. I couldn't wait until Vegeta and I had the chance to beat the shit out of each other.

We hadn't spared in a while; each of us training in his own way to prepare. So now, I was itching for a challenge.

When we met up with the girls again, Vienna seemed to have forgotten about the little spat outside the locker room. She was currently socializing with her brothers; uninteresting to what the other girls had to say. She was defiantly my little tomboy.

The children's competition was first.

The triplets were all determine to win. I found myself wishing that Vegeta had not bribed them with money. The money didn't even matter, I don't think, because they were more interesting in getting his approval.

They always fought for his attention. They weren't so willing to jump through hoops for my own, though, because I was much more willing to give it to them. With him, though, they had to earn it. They had to stand out somehow.

I don't think he did it on purpose; he didn't understand why _I_ wanted his attention, let alone the children. He didn't see any reason why anyone would want to get his affection, or his praise, so he saw no reason to give it.

Or perhaps he did it on purpose to push them just a little bit harder.

Whatever he did, though, it drove them to do their best.

After the names were put in order, and all the kids separated into weight classes, the tournament began.

We stood up in the bleachers, watching intently.

The kids all came out and stood in a line. Just twelve of them; four of them with us. This year's tournament was pretty small.

When the guy went to give the boys their numbers, he had to pause and look at the sheet before he simply asked which one was which. I laughed at this, and Vegeta snorted. It was funny because we'd made it a point to dress them differently that morning.

Finally, the fighting began.

The first round was Lysander against a boy twice his size. After the bell had went off, Lysander's gaze wondered out into the audience, his attention deteriorating.

His eyes fell on Vegeta and I, and he waved.

The other boy saw this as the perfect moment to attack.

Lysander turned just in time to head butt the other boy in the jaw.

I heard it crack from my position in the bleachers. I couldn't help but cringe. I knew that hurt.

The boy fell to the ground walling.

Lysander cocked his head. He'd done that to Aizel literally hundreds of times, and he'd never fell to the ground and cried.

He crossed in arms in a fashion that was so much like Vegeta's own stance it was scary. He seemed to be waiting for the boy to suck it up before they continued.

Obviously, though, the boy was done. The medics came and haled him off, leaving Lysander to stand there, confused. He finally just went back into the lobby to sit with the other children.

Next were two boys that I didn't know. They fought, but I wasn't paying attention to who had won.

"My attention is dwindling…" Vegeta muttered to me in Siayan, "Dwindling… Gone." He said with a punctual nod. "Let's go get some nachos,"

I shushed him and continued to watch the fight.

Finally, something interesting happened.

Pan and Aizel were put up against each other. I knew he would not hold back. I knew she didn't stand a chance. There would be many tears later on.

The bell rang, and he charged at her, intending to strike fast and hard.

She put up her hands, and by some strike of luck, managed to block nearly all of his attacks. He finally got her in the head.

She fell to the ground and skidded across the stadium floor, landing at the other side of the ring. She sat up, an ugly bruise already forming on her forehead. "Aizel!" She cried angrily as she stood back up. "That was _mean_!"

He faltered, not knowing how to react to this. They had never fought before, so someone calling him 'mean' during a fight was completely knew to him.

She charged at him, going for his stomach.

He dodged out of the way, snapping out of his daze.

The three year old was fast, but not fast enough to keep her uncle at his wits end.

Eventually, the tournament ended when he spiked her hard to the side of the head, knocking her out of the ring and onto the grass. She sat up, glared at him, and then stalked back into the lobby.

He fallowed after, scratching his head in the same fashion I myself did.

The tournament continued, and Pan came to join us in the audience.

"I lost, Papa." She said a matter-of-factly.

"You did a good job, though."

"But I _lost_,"

I shook my head. "It doesn't mater if you loose; as long as you tried."

She sighed, leaning her head on the side of her face that was not purple and swollen. "Aizel's really strong," She stated absently.

I nodded. "He's older than you, though."

"I'm going to beat him, someday." She declared. "I'm going to make _his_ face hurt!"

I grinned. "Go for it."

She nodded, indicating that she intended to do just that.

In the ring, a few more matched passed before one of ours actually appeared. This time it was Vienna's turn.

They must have looked at all the children and found the biggest one there in order to 'take her out', I suppose. This kid was huge; probably even bigger than Krillin.

She had to crane her neck to look at him.

I had a moment when I truly felt like he would hurt her somehow; but then the thought was abolished as soon as the bell rang. He was a human. There was no way he would be able to do anything to her other than salt her with tears.

It took her no time at all to bring the boy to the ground and sit atop him with his leg pinned beneath him and his arm twisted back, as he cried and begged her to let him go.

When the bell rang again, she hopped to her feet and skipped back to the lobby.

Eventually, only the triplets remained.

The crowed seemed to have taken bets on who would win. One guy even asked me my opinion. I told him that I thought the one with the messy black hair would win. He went to see which one I meant, and then realized they _all_ had messy black hair.

In the ring, the boys were put against each other.

This was nothing like the fights at home. At home, it didn't matter who won on that particular day. All that mattered was that they'd had fun. Here, though, there was the pressure to win from both the crowd and from us.

The bell rang again. That sound was becoming annoying.

They charged tactfully, meeting in the middle, where they attacked and fought each other for several minutes. Finally, they parted.

They stared at each other for a moment, each trying to intimidate the other. They put their hands up at the same time, obviously both having the same idea, and wriggled their fingers, making growling noises.

We all laughed out loud. They were so much more adorable then they intended to be, I think.

They put their hands down at the same time, and took a few paces to the left, fallowing an invisible circle.

It was like watching a western movie; except they were the exact same person staring each other down. I felt like one of them needed to be dressed in all black, the other white.

They charged again, meeting in the middle once more.

This cycle of stopping and starting began to become routine; until they became tired. They seemed to just say 'Fuck it' and went at each other, each hopping to tire the other one out until they had the upper hand.

They began to rise in the air, the crowd becoming over-excited by the spectacle.

They were too evenly matched, though. They knew each other too well. They had some kind of weird connection that they did not fully share with Vienna; something much deeper than the fact that they were brothers.

They were, in a sense, the same person. They had the same face, the same body, the same eyes, the same mannerisms, the same ideas; the same everything.

They would finish each other's sentences; know what the other was thinking before the thought left his mouth; knew when the other was upset or scared.

And yet, they were completely different people.

Their personalities were so vastly contrasted that sometimes, I would forget that they _were _brothers.

The fight went on, the two of them clashing and contradicting each other until finally, after nearly an hour, something broke.

Literally, something broke.

Lysander managed to knock his brother onto the ring from their position in the air. Aizel landed hard onto the tournament floor, right onto his arm.

I more _felt _it snap more than heard it. I stomach dropped.

I saw him roll, sitting back up, his mouth open wide with pain. His eyes squeezed shut as he held his wrist to his chest.

Lysander stopped immediately, knowing at once that he was not faking it.

Aizel screamed, his feet kicking in an effort to both dispel his agony and get himself back up to his feet.

I froze myself, wishing at once that it were me in pain, and not him.

After a moment, he stopped, and rose, letting the appendage fall to his side. His chest heaved as he got over the initial shock of pain he had experienced. He had probably never felt anything like that. He probably didn't know what he should do.

Now severely compensating, he went on.

"Aizel seems to want to continue, folks!" The announcer said over the intercom. "What a trooper!"

"He's going to make it swell up," Vegeta muttered beside me. I nodded in agreement.

"Should we stop it?" Gohan asked, eyebrows pulled down in worry.

I shook my head.

"Let them eat cake." Vegeta said casually, not taking his eyes off the ring.

Neither of us would dare stop the fight, though. We wouldn't think of doing that to any of them.

Down in the ring, Lysander seemed unsure of what to do. He was faced with the dilemma of either attacking, or forfeiting. He seemed unwilling to do either one.

The look on Aizel's face seemed to say 'Finish it', but Lysander would not.

Finally, Aizel made the first move. He swung, his left side wide open, and stepped forward, his balance off. He wouldn't be able to fight like that for long; not if Lys decided he should retaliate.

And retaliate he did.

With one fierce kick, Aizel was knocked out of the ring.

My heart went out to him. He had fought hard, and it sucked that he lost in the end.

The medics came just in case he needed to be carried out. He got up on his own, though, and went to shake his brother's hand. They bowed slightly, and Aizel took his leave.

I made a mental note to give him some kind of reward when we got home; the last red Popsicle maybe; the one that Vegeta had insisted be saved for himself.

Finally, the final match began.

Lysander just had to beat Vienna, and he would win.

But he was tired. I could see he was close to dropping from the last fight. He kept stumbling around, his legs threatening to give out.

Vienna, on the other hand, was fresh as a daisy.

The match began, and at first, neither of them moved.

Vienna seemed to be wondering if it were right to attack him; since he was so close to being knocked out as it was.

After a few moment seconds, she finally went after him. He blocked many of her attacks; and would have gotten more if he hadn't been so tired.

But that was how the game was played. It didn't matter how tired you were; if you were just one spot away from winning, there was no 'Let me ketch my breath'.

She landed a punch to his face, which he absorbed with little notice. He took a step back, so near the edge I cringed. If he stepped out of the ring, he was sure to be pissed for weeks.

She got him again in his stomach, and then again to his head.

He couldn't win. He was too tired, and she was too determined to win.

Finally, he just seemed to give up. He let himself fall to the ground, his tail unwinding from around his waist. This seemed to indicate, to her, that he did not want to fight anymore.

She stepped back, and let her arms fall.

The bell rung. The tournament was over. She had won.

The crowd cheered, standing up from their seats.

I was disappointed, as I knew I would be. Even if Lysander had won, I would have been disappointed, though. They couldn't _all_ win, but I wanted so badly for that to be the case. That way no one was upset.

Even though he had lost, he and his sister touched their knuckles together in a manner that seemed to say 'Good game'.

I hadn't expected them to take losing so well; we had practically drilled good sportsmanship into their heads, but I never thought they would take to it so easily. In their minds, they had already gotten over who had won, and were already back to their normal sibling rivalry.

They approached us later, looking pretty well adjusted.

"You guys did such a good job," I said.

They didn't acknowledge the compliment. "Papa, my hand hurts!" Aizel showed me his hand, which was wrapped in a blue splint. "It went _snap_!"

I nodded. "I hear it." I looked at it for a moment before kissing it. "Better?"

"Yeah," He said, pulling it back to look at it himself.

Pan ran to them and jumped onto Lysander's back. "You're guy's fight was so cool!" she said.

"Thanks," He said, "Your's was to."

She shook her head. "You didn't even _see _mine! And besides, it was not as cool as yours!"

He didn't argue with her anymore.

"You did good, kids," Piccolo said gruffly.

They all jumped and looked up at him, obviously noticing him for the first time.

"You're really tall," Vienna said, coking her head.

"I know." He said, a ghost of a smirk coming to his lips.

"Do you hit your head on stuff?" Lysander asked.

He nodded. "Sometimes... not often."

"Oh." They all said at the same time.

"How come you're green?" Vienna finally asked.

"I'm not a human."

They seemed to contemplate this for a moment. "Okay!" they cried, seeming to see this answer as perfectly acceptable.

I smiled at him and he smirked back. They were pretty quick to accept just about anything; which made my job pretty easy.

Now it was time for the adults to compete. I couldn't wait; and I knew Vegeta could hardly contain himself either. Whenever he was excited about something, he grew really quiet, as if going over and over in his head exactly how he would go about it.

I wondered who would win. I hoped I would; but I wouldn't mind of one of the others did. Regardless of who won; I knew this would be a pretty interesting competition.

A/N: This chapter was sooo long… usually each chapter is about five pages; this was nearly twice that. Anyway… I hope you enjoyed it. I'll be wrapping this story up within the next three to four chapters, so I need some opinions on a few things. First off; should their be a sequel? Second, if there is a sequel, should the story start before, after, or during rut season? I think it should start the same way this story started; with rut season. Send me your opinions. I'm really not sure what I want to do. I've been thinking about this since this story stated, and I've been agonizing over it ever since. So please, tell me what you think. Thank you very much.


	19. The Tournoment Continues

I waited around, anxiously waiting for my number. Vegeta had already received four; which was my favorite; so my only hope to fight him in the first round would be to get three.

I was handed eleven instead.

"Damn it," I muttered to myself.

Vegeta looked at it and frowned. "Why didn't you pick three?"

I gave him a look. "_I_ didn't pick it," I protested.

He suddenly smirked. A lot of the things he said were just said to get on my nerves. He seemed to enjoy himself when I was stressed out or frustrated.

The triplets had wanted so badly to fallow us back out onto the ring; but I had insisted that they stay with Bulma and Videl, where they could be kept out of trouble.

They were a little young, still, to cause all that much trouble; but I recalled Goten and Trunks being nearly unbearable when they were little, so I simply brace myself for the worst.

Gohan received twelve, and Piccolo eight, Krillin nine, and his wife had three, while Goten had six and Trunks seven.

That meant that Vegeta and Eighteen would be facing each other in the first round. I tried desperately to get her to trade with me, but she told me that she didn't want to hear my obnoxious begging. She was a lot like Vegeta, actually.

Krillin was getting old, and probably should have been taking it easy; but he insisted that this would be his last fight ever. I didn't believe him, but who was I to judge? As Vegeta had said; Let them eat cake. Let them be free to do as they pleased.

As we waited for the first round to pass, Krillin and I had a little chat.

"So… you and Vegeta, huh?" He seemed a little uncomfortable asking.

"Yeah," I answered, looking down to grin at him. "What of it?"

He put up his hands. "Nothing, just wondering." He paused. "So, those kids… they're yours?"

I nodded. "And Vegeta's."

"How did you… get... them?"

"The internet." I said. When he seemed to take me seriously, I laughed. "That was a joke."

"Oh." He laughed, seeming embarrassed.

I shrugged. "Saiyan men can have babies just like women can." It was the simplest explanation I could come up with.

His eyes grew wide. "Really?"

I smiled to show that I was not lying to him.

"So which of you…" He trailed off.

I nodded my head over to Vegeta, who was standing near the door with his arms crossed and his chin tucked to his chest, waiting.

"Oh." He said again and fell silent once more. "Well… congratulations!"

I grinned again. "Thanks," I knew I could count on Krillin to make no judgments. Or at least not to voice his judgments.

Again, awkward silence. "They're cute. Very inquisitive."

I rolled my eyes comically. "Tell me about it."

We shared in a laugh.

"Kinda makes me wish I'd had a few more kids…" He thought about it for a moment. "I mean, Marron's great; she's the world to me; but I wish I could have had maybe just one more, you know, to hang out with."

He meant a boy. He wished he could have had a boy.

"It's not too late." I pointed out.

He shook his head. "Oh yes it is. I am done. I'm too old to have any more kids."

"I'm the same age as you, and I just had three. You're not too old."

He shook his head again. "That's different and you know it. You and Vegeta are…" He trailed off, "Unique. You guys are – what, forty? Fifty? – and you don't look a day over twenty-five. Who knows? You guys could go on having kids for the next hundred years."

Hundred years? I couldn't deal with a hundred years worth of children. I'd probably kill myself.

I doubted Saiyans could live that long anyway.

I sighed. I'd missed Krillin's company. "What happened to us?" I suddenly asked. "One day we just… drifted apart."

He nodded. "I know what you mean, man. We've got responsibilities now. We can't just do whatever we want, like when we were kids."

I hadn't thought about my childhood in a long time.

I remember how much fun childhood had been. There were no worries; there was no questioning anything that was beyond our level of understanding. There were no inquisitions about such things as one's purpose in life, one's destiny, one's sexuality, one's morals. We were just… us.

I would have given anything to go back to that simple way of life. To that place were there was no reason to rush, and there was no reason to remember the unimportant. There was no reason for guilt because there was no cause for it. There was no reason for unease because there was nothing to feel uneasy about.

Now… now life had grown too complicated. Now life was _hard_.

And at the same time, beautiful. Like fantastic works of art. Like nature untainted by human fingers.

Like Vegeta.

I glanced over at him. He was still standing, waiting as patiently as a Prince could. I could tell he was growing restless. He wanted so badly to get Eighteen out of the way so we could finally begin our most beloved dance of warriors.

I sighed again. I had the urge to just go over there and hold him. Just take a quick whiff of his hair; just one quick smell and I wouldn't need a fix for a while. Just one quick…

I was behind him before I even realized I moved.

He turned, taking a step back at the closeness. "Can I help you?" He asked sarcastically, as if he had anticipated me coming over there. Maybe he had…

I looped an arm around his waist and buried my face into his hair. He panicked, but didn't act on that panic.

Even after all these years, he was still wary of contact. He was just not accustomed to be grabbed, or touched, or held in any manor outside of battle.

The first round finally began. We didn't know anyone in this fight, so we simply watched and waited.

They were, surprisingly, two girls. They were the only two girls in the tournament this year, besides Eighteen. They were pretty tough for humans; girls or not.

One of them had short, boyish hair while the other had her's tied back into a tight bun. The one with the short hair managed to lure the other girl to the other side of the ring, and then punch her down out of the ring.

The one that lost sat up and pounded her fist down onto the ground in frustration, before getting up. They shook, and both exited the ring.

The girl that lost gathered her things and left the lobby without a word; giving Vegeta a calculated flirtatious smirk on the way out.

He didn't seem to catch it, though.

She made me want to punch her in the head too.

And then the _real_ tournament began. Eighteen stepped up to Vegeta and glanced down at him. "This is going to be a blast," She said sarcastically.

He smirked. "Probably not for you."

They stepped out into the stadium and took their positions in the ring.

I watched intently, head cocked. I wondered how long it would take to defeat her; probably a while, since she _was_ pretty good.

I nearly danced with excitement when the bell rang. They stared each other down for a moment, before they abruptly charged at one another.

Two beings of nearly immeasurable power clashed into a fury of punches and kicks. Vegeta had years of training and instinct on his side, while Eighteen had a high-tech computer to her advantage.

After a brief moment of blocking each other continuously, they parted, landing back a little.

They were talking to each other, each trying to intimidate the other.

I could hear the triplets from the first row of the stadium. They were cheering as loud as their little voices could reach. They chanted the phrase '_A'lun de mah'_, which meant 'All or nothing' in the high-speech.

Vegeta got a full blow to her head, sending her sprawling across the stadium. Krillin gritted his teeth beside me. She was on her feet with in seconds, though, walking it off.

She was mad; mostly because Vegeta was hardly breaking a sweat. She was probably thinking about how she was killing herself and he wasn't even warmed up yet.

The old Vegeta would have been gloating. The old Vegeta would have been taunting her and teasing her.

But now that he had six little eyes watching him, he was silent; patient. He would wait until she caught her breath and allow her to charge him once more.

He probably wouldn't even try until he faced me. He was saving it all for our fight.

I found myself wishing that she had traded with me. She was getting the crap beat out of her in a pretty humiliating way. But she was a fighter; it wasn't like she would cry when it was all done and over with.

The match ended when he hit her hard in the back and knocked her out of the ring. With blood spewing from her mouth, she rose to her feet and staggered back to the lobby without a word.

"I lost," She stated in her monotone voice. When he came into the lobby, she turned to him. "Thanks for not being an ass."

He nodded. "Any time."

The next pair of fighters entered the ring. This time it was Goten and a giant of a man. He towered over Piccolo even; probably near eight feet. The man had a deep rumbling voice that caused your chest to quake.

Goten finished him off with a few hits to the head and a few to the stomach. When the man lay unconscious, he nudged him with is foot, to make sure he wasn't dead. When he was sure he wasn't, he came back to the lobby and sat down to finish his conversation with Trunks.

Trunks and Piccolo were called next. Piccolo was aware that he was going to loose; but he stalked out there anyway with his arms crossed.

It was a good fight; and after Piccolo was knocked out of the ring, he stood up and went back to hang out with Gohan until the end of the tournament.

Then Krillin went out and beat this one guy that was just a head taller than he was. The man was really cocky; almost as much as Vegeta had been once upon a time.

Then _finally_ it was my turn. Against Gohan.

I didn't mind fighting my son; it was the fact that he was going to tire me out so much. He hadn't been training like he should have been; with his family and his job to take care of, so he'd grown pretty weak.

He gave me a smile as we approached the ring. "When was the last time we spared, Pa- I mean, dad?" He almost called me Papa.

I shrugged my shoulders. "It's been a while." I grinned at him. I wanted the match to start now. I was literally hopping from one foot to the other in anticipation; like the triplets did when they were so excited they didn't know what to do.

The bell rang and I nearly exploded with the rush of adrenaline I felt. I heard the triplets cheering us both on from behind me. They liked Gohan a lot; they were much closer to him than they were to Goten or Trunks.

I focused back on the fight.

Gohan and I had trained for years, so we knew each other pretty well; but he was out of practice.

I lunged at him, and he went to block. He just barely missed getting his head knocked off.

Fighting was not like riding a bicycle; if you were out of practice, then you've pretty much screwed yourself.

We became entangled in a frenzy of limbs, all aiming to do the same thing; land a hit.

Finally, I got one to his stomach.

He gagged, stepping back, only to whip back around and get me in the jaw.

I reeled, but continued to block while I got over the throbbing pain in my mouth.

After the pain dulled, I landed another punch to the side of his head, across his ear.

Getting hit in the ear hurt more than being hit in the mouth, actually, because he turned a complete circle before coming back for more.

I caught his leg as it went to knock me down; pulling him to the ground as hard as I could.

The tile cracked under him.

Without letting go of his foot, I turned, swung him around, and crashed him back down onto the ring floor.

I pulled him to his feet and punched him in the face.

He choked as blood filled his mouth and ran down his nose. He nodded forward suddenly, head-butting me.

I released him immediately; taking several steps back and then crashing to the ring floor myself. He'd broken my nose; that much I knew.

There was suddenly blood everywhere. It soaked my shirt, and ran down my lips like water; drowning me with my own blood. I became light headed, and only began to recover right before he charged me, and hit my square in the chest.

I skidded back, and was on my feet in a moment. Everything began to tip as we fought on; literally, my line of sight was beginning to tilt as I fought.

Gohan was slowing though; becoming tired. I too was pretty tired as it was. We clashed for several minutes, neither letting up, until we were forced to separate to take a breather and assess the situation.

I smirked, and then charged, giving him no time to react. He seemed surprised, as he barely blocked a kick to his side. He failed to notice my fist coming towards him though. I got him square in the jaw, as he had done me.

He crashed down onto the grass outside the ring. He spat out some blood, as he rose to his hands and knees, attempting to diminish his disorientation.

He eventually gained enough control to completely rise. We shook, and he gave me a lop-sided grin.

"I guess I need a little more training,"

I nodded. "Maybe."

Two more matches passed that I didn't fallow. I spent the next hour in the medic wing, as a lady with the tiniest fingers imaginable tried to set my nose back into place.

Vegeta was standing by, watching. He sighed when she failed once more, and pushed her out of the way. He grabbed the back of my head, told me to hold my breath, and then abruptly set my nose back into place with one crack.

Pain exploded across my face, rendering me blind for a moment. I yelped, squeezing my eyes shut.

He withdrew his hands, and went to wash the blood off in the sink. "Better?"

I nodded, and then turned as the nurse began to put a bandage on his nose. At least now I could breath. "I guess we should have brought some senzu beans, huh?" I said in Saiyan.

He shrugged. "That's kind of like cheating though." He replied in English. "Endurance is half the game."

I agreed with him; the point of a tournament was to see who could last the longest.

Vegeta left me momentarily to start off the next round. He was against the girl with the short hair. He returned not ten minutes later, a blank expression on his face.

The said girl was taken into the medic wing with a twisted ankle; it seemed, from falling out of the ring.

"She cried like a girl," Vegeta said in the high-speech as he watched the nurse bandage her foot.

"She is a girl," I replied.

He shook his head. "There's no room for girls during a fight." With that, he took his leave once more. This time I fallowed him.

Next up where Goten and Trunks. They had grown extremely competitive over the years; to a point where they almost killed each other in order to win. I wondered if Lysander and Aizel would become like that.

The fight began with a bang. Neither of them had had a good fight in a while, from what I understood, so they were itching to beat the shit out of each other.

Trunks was the victor this time.

By the time the fight was over, Goten had a broken eye socket, and a gash across his left cheek. Trunks had suffered from a dislocated shoulder and a few broken knuckles. I wasn't sure how well he would be able to fight with his left side so severely compensated; so I guess I'll find out.

It was my turn once more. This time I was against Krillin. He seemed a little upset that he hadn't gotten further before he was stopped by one of us; but he took it like a man and sucked it up.

The fight was over before it really began. Even with one of my eyes unable to see properly, I still managed to knock him out without much effort. He had a sour look on his face for a little while, but he got over it.

Another fight passed with people I didn't know.

I spent the time with Vegeta, talking about random things in our secret language.

"I'm really horny right now," Vegeta said casually, so no one would suspect we were talking about anything dirty.

I resisted a moan. "Me too,"

"We should do it in the bathroom; really quick." He said.

I wasn't sure if he was joking so I asked. "Seriously?"

He snorted. "No. You think I'd have sex in this place?"

Piccolo turned to us. He'd said that last bit in English. "What?" He asked, as if to be sure he'd heard right.

We looked at him, pretending to be confused.

"Sweet dreams are made of these," I said, referring to the song.

"Who am I to disagree?" Vegeta asked, turned towards me.

"I traveled the world and the seven seas," I went on, getting excited.

"Everybody's lookin' for somethin'." We said at the same time and I burst into laughter.

He gave us a long, hard look. "What is wrong with you two?"

We looked at each other again and this time we both began to laugh.

Usually, Vegeta did not laugh this easily. I asked him what was up.

"To tell you the truth," He said cocking his head. "I'm a little bit smashed."

'Smashed' meaning drunk. I hadn't noticed until then, but he did seem more relaxed than he should have been. I shrugged, enjoying his mellowness for the time being.

Finally, the second to the last round began. In this round, it would be Vegeta against Trunks and me against some kid who probably couldn't even drink yet.

Vegeta and Trunks started once more.

Trunks was pretty compensated as it was, while Vegeta had not had a challenge all day. This didn't seem like a fair fight, so Vegeta promised to only use one hand as well.

He let his right arm fall to his side, to use his dominate left hand to fight. This made the competition awkward, though, because each of them had one side open. I shrugged. They could fight however they wanted.

They started this round in the air; punching and kicking wildly. It was harder to block with just one hand each, but it was also easier, because when one would use their hand to punch, that would leave them wide open for attack.

Vegeta got a nasty hit to the ribs. He seemed wracked with crippling pain as he descended a few feet, before recovering, and going to get Trunks right in the stomach.

He recoiled, and then landing another hit onto Vegeta's ribs.

They were killing each other. It had been an _awful_ idea to fight with only one hand; but Vegeta stayed true to his word.

After nearly an hour, Trunks finally lost, when Vegeta kicked him in the head, and knocked him back into the lobby. I'm pretty sure the lobby counts as out of the ring.

Trunks was unconscious for a brief moment before he came to and stared blankly, as if he couldn't remember what had happened. His memory seemed to come back once Vegeta reentered the lobby and plopped down onto the floor, clutching his side.

"God damn it!" He cursed, eyes squeezed shut tightly. He took several deep breaths before he willed himself back onto his feet.

Through his spandex tank-top, I could see his ribs sticking out awkwardly. I wrinkled my nose. "Do you want to go to the medic?"

He shook his head. "What are they going to do?"

He was right; there was very little you could do for broken ribs. He would just have to suck it up.

A man approached me, and tapped my shoulder. "Ah, sir?"

I turned. "Yeah?" I looked over his head before looking down to meet his gaze.

"Your opponent had forfeited. Sorry for the inconvenience."

I cocked my head. "Forfeited?"

"Pathetic coward," Vegeta spat in Saiyan. "_Fangarro_."

I asked him the meaning of this new word.

"It means pussy," He said without looking up from his side, which he was inspecting carefully.

The man who had informed me of his dropping out cocked his head, and then politely took his leave.

I squeezed the bridge of my nose carefully, the pressure making me go blind. "I guess it's just you and me?" I said in a voice that was both enthusiastic and exhausted.

He nodded, and then hissed. "God damn it, Trunks!" he cursed again, but Trunks was no where around. He and Goten had slipped off somewhere, apparently.

There was a long brake in between the third and the final round. During that time, Bulma brought the triplets back to spend some time with us.

They all began talking at once; finishing and starting each other's sentences, crying out when their voices were drown out, begging to be held or played with.

"Uppy!" Lysander demanded when I rose to my feet, putting up his arms. He was so touchy feely; much more so than the other two.

I picked him up, careful to keep his head away from my face.

"Are you okay, Papa?" Vienna asked, noticing all the blood on my shirt.

I nodded. "I just hurt my nose. It's all better though."

"Do you need me to kiss it?" She asked, brows furrowing in concern.

I nodded and bent to let her kiss it for me. The pressure from that kiss alone made my retinas feel as though they were filling with blood. My eye was really bothering me too.

I sat back down on the floor, Lysander on my lap. I abruptly slapped Vegeta's thigh to get his attention. "My face hurts," I announced.

He nodded. "It's killing me."

I laughed sarcastically. "You don't look so hot either."

In truth, he was always gorgeous. Even when he was sweaty and covered in dirt and blood, he was perfect.

I looked at the clock. "We have twelve minutes." I wasn't sure I would be prepared to fight him in twelve minutes. I was tired, he was tired, we were both injured… it would have been better if they gave us a day to recover. Just a day would be all I needed.

The triplets began talking to each other in that language they rarely use before us; that language they had created on their own. It sounded like gibberish to Vegeta and I; but to them, it was a completely tangible, useable language. Bulma had said that multiples did that a lot, actually.

I wasn't sure what they were talking about, so I just sat and observed for a moment.

Lysander, the most outgoing of the three, talked with his hands a lot. Aizel, the quietest and most easily aggravated hardly made eye contact when he spoke. Vienna was a mixture of the two.

She was almost always the medium to their extremes. Where Aizel was aggressive and Lysander was placid, she was right in between. Where Aizel was brash, and Lysander thought ahead, Vienna was right there to be the middle ground. Where Aizel was quick to anger, and Lysander was hardly ever angered at all, Vienna was there so they could all meet in the middle. When one was hot and the other cold, she would be tepid at most.

Twelve minutes passed in seconds. Before I knew it, it was time to finish the tournament.

I turned to Vegeta. "Ready to get the crap beat out of you?"

He cocked his head teasingly. "The question is are _you_ ready, Kakorot?"

We made our way out into the stadium, to fight our last battle of the day. Now that all our other battles had been fought, and most of them won, this was the very last to go; for now.

I had fought for peace, for love, for acceptance, for my children, and now, to simply close one chapter of my life.

Once upon a time, I would have looked for any reason to fight. Now I realized; a good fight never happened 'just because'. A good fight happened for a reason.

_A'lun de mah_. All or nothing.

A/N: One more chapter. It's already written. Review and I'll post it really fast. The last chapter is pretty long too; but not as tedious as this chapter…. Oooh! I'm so excited! I'm practically _shaking_. It's not often one actually _finishes_ a story. So, review please!


	20. And The Winner Is

And finally, after nearly a year of anticipation, our dance could begin.

I called it a dance because I never thought of it as kicking the shit out of each other. I thought of it as a graceful, though bloody, series of movements. A dance.

I watched him out of the corner of my eye as we approached the ring. His beautiful face was staring straight ahead; his pouty lips twisted up into a smirk.

We took out positions. These were the moments we lived for. These were the moments that made all the other shit in life seem petty; meaningless.

The bell rang, and we wasted no time going after each other.

I blocked one of his punches, as his other hand blocked my kick. We held that position for several seconds, before we parted and stepped back to our respected sides of the ring.

I could hear the triplets going wild, even though nothing drastic had even happened yet.

I cocked my head, trying to relieve the pressure on my eye. The throbbing was becoming increasingly annoying as I struggled to breath through my nose. Whatever Gohan had done, he had done a thorough job.

I pulled at my shirt; un-sticking the dried blood from my chest. If I had had any hair there, it would have hurt.

Vegeta's head cocked as well, as if he were mocking me. Instead, I realized, he was thinking. All of a sudden, he charged at me, trying to catch me off guard.

I caught his fist without hesitation; my huge hand covering his small one almost completely.

I dragged him towards me by his fist and punched him in the face.

He reeled, his head snapping back, only to come forward again and slam against my collar bone. It nearly broke from the impact. I released his hand, taking a step back to regain my composer.

He had a very sour expression on his face. He muttered something to himself, and then attacked me again. This time he got close enough to get me in the stomach.

Punches and kicks were exchanged for literally hours. After the first hour and a half, we had to go back to our sides to take a breather.

We were too damn evenly matched. We had known each other for too long to be surprised by anything the other did. It was like trying to face a twin. This must be how the boys felt.

I loved him, yes, but I wanted so badly to kick his ass. I just wanted to beat him so hard that he wouldn't be able to kick my ass back. A few years ago, this would have been the case.

But since then, he had gotten extremely better. From the constant time we had spent together, we had grown to mimic and sometimes steal each other's attacks and techniques.

I remembered our talk this morning. We had made the children _swear_ not to use energy blasts. I wondered if they would call me a hypocrite if I did the very thing I told them not to do.

I thought it over, and decided that energy blasts were all too necessary if I was going to beat him. My hands and feet were more likely to break before I'd be able to beat him into unconsciousness.

I moved quickly, going for his stomach, but at the last moment, I charged up a blast strong enough to knock him out of the ring.

He whirled, evading the blast, and moved up into the air. "Hey!" He called down, a deep frown set into his face. "Are we allowed to use blasts now?" He asked me in the high-speech, his voice laced with frustration.

"_Gue; moshte pa?_" I replied with a raise of my hands, which meant, 'Sure; why not?'.

He didn't need to be told twice. He charged up a blast big enough to blow the crown to smithereens.

"Hey, wait!" I called up to him, joining him in the air. He fallowed my movement, intending to hit me the second I stopped talking. "You can't make one _that_ big!"

He grunted. "_Moshte_?"

"Because what happens if you miss? Then all these people would die!"

He shrugged his shoulders. "We can wish them back."

I gave him a stern look. "Vegeta."

He sighed deeply, "Fine!" He slapped his hands together and allowed the ball of energy to disappear. "Any more rules you want to throw out there?"

I took a moment to think, but was distracted when he sent a blast that was even bigger than the one before at me.

I caught it, the heat from it burning my fingertips. I held it for a moment, unsure of what to do with it. The air around me grew thin as I contemplated.

He charged at me, disregarding the fact that I had a situation to deal with.

I tossed the ball into the air, hopping it wouldn't hit any planets on its way out into deep space.

He laughed like a mad man as he threw punch after punch at me.

"Are you crazy?!" I asked, getting irritated at his childishness.

He nodded. "Absolutely insane," He backhanded me across the face, sending me crashing to the ring.

I was on my feet at once, with a look of utter frustration plastered on my face. He could be such as ass sometimes. He could be such a child sometimes.

He landed in the ring and crossed his arms, his weight shifted to one side. I couldn't help but fallow the curve of his spine and hips as he stared at me with those striking, solemn eyes; his angular jaw set tightly in place.

He sighed suddenly. "This isn't getting us anywhere, Kakorot." I was surprised by this statement. He almost never admitted to hopelessness.

I nodded. "But it's fun, huh?"

He seemed to agree with me. He twisted, his spine crackling. "We'd better have the best sex of our lives once this is over."

I was always fascinated, as well as turned on, by his boldness. He would simply say what he wanted, and leave it there to be judged, or whatever I wanted to do with it. He never really cared what anyone else thought.

I glanced at the jumbo-screen above my head; noticing it for the first time. It was currently switching between the two of us; focusing in on our expressions.

The first thing I noticed about myself was the nearly black bruises that had formed under my eyes. I could still see, but not as well as I had that morning. When I shifted my head to certain positions I went partially blind.

I didn't know what that meant, but it probably wasn't good.

I turned just in time to be nailed in the face once more.

That pain was there again, coming in waves across my entire face in a maddening, unbearable pattern. My whole body shuttered, as if sympathetic for the effected area.

There was no time to cry out or yelp; I simply sat on my ass for a few seconds, trying to reorient myself.

I had to get up, though, when Vegeta launched himself at me again.

This fight had gone on for far too long. It was like reading a book; you were always waiting for the end. It didn't matter how you got there; you just wanted a satisfying end.

And Vegeta never disappointed me.

I was almost completely blind in my right eye now; I could only see shadows and shapes through it. And since Vegeta was left handed, most of his attacks came from that side.

If I had been able to see, I probably wouldn't have gotten beaten as hard as I had during the last hour or so.

I noticed that Vegeta kept crouching to the right, the side with the broken ribs; as if he were trying to force them back into their proper place. The manner in which he was crouching though seemed unconscious, and seemed to say 'Don't pay any attention to that, Kakorot; you have other things to worry about.'

An idea came to me.

Once he was close enough, and distracted with trying to knock my head off, I thrust out my hand and grabbed hold of his side.

His breath hitched, and he froze completely. He fell to his knees as he tried to pull my hand away.

I realized at once that this was not fair; but this was not a matter of fairness. It was a matter of who could overpower the other.

He looked up at me, a look of angered hopelessness in his eyes.

I couldn't figure out if he was faking it, or if he was truly in so much pain that he could not move.

He wheezed out, "I can't breathe, Kakorot,"

I released him, feeling terrible; until he rose to his feet and quickly hit my in the jaw with his head. And then we were back to where we started.

Finally, it came to a point where I just couldn't stand this any longer. Five and a half hours of none-stop fighting. I knew the audience was tired; but our friends and family were still right there with us.

I rose up into the air, and charged up a huge blast.

Vegeta immediately fallowed suit, charging up one just a powerful.

We unleashed them at the same time; each trying to fake the other out and release it when they didn't expect it. It hadn't worked though.

The blasts collided into a red and blue flash of light; the energy from it heating up the air and sucking the water from it. The blasts had a moment where they seemed like they would not move, since they were so evenly matched. But they were not opposites, so they eventually repelled.

My own blast was thrown right back at me; my initial plan backfiring. I put up my hands, and held it back, thinking the whole time how bad of an idea it had been.

What could I do with it now? Where could I put it?

I looked over at Vegeta. He was probably thinking the same thing I was as he fought to keep his own blast at bay.

Eventually, we were forced down, the blasts ricocheting off our charred forms and going up into the sky.

I hit the ground, too tired to stop myself, and too disoriented to figure out which way was up anyhow.

I sat up, my hand clutching the grass gently. I then realized I was completely out of the ring. I had lost.

I stood up, intending to congratulate Vegeta; but then saw that he too was standing outside the ring, looking perplexed.

We stared at each other, as if to ask one another what had happened.

"Uh… We're having some difficulties at the moment, folks; we'll announce the winner after a brief moment."

The Jumbo-screened became a split screen; showing us two separate camera angels at once. The left side showed my form hitting the ground, while the right showed Vegeta's. We had hit the ground at the exact same time.

They slowed it down to literally millimeters before deciding that it was a tie.

We stared at each other. The look of complete bewilderment on Vegeta's face was at the same time adorable as well as comical.

"What do we do now?" I asked finally, confused.

He shook his head, indicating that he didn't know. He leapt onto the ring and crossed over to my side to talk to me. He grabbed my face and forced me to bend down to his level. "What's wrong with your eye? You can't see?"

I smiled sheepishly, though there was no reason to smile. "Not very well."

He nodded, as if he expected this. "Let's go get the cubs and then go to the lookout for some beans. My chest is killing me."

"What about the trophy?" I asked as I fallowed him closely.

He shrugged. "They can keep it. Unless you want it. Then you can go collect it if you want."

"And what about the prize money?"

"They can send it in the mail."

We collected the triplets soon after that. They had been so excited all day; so now they were drained. They kept yawning and trying to sit down in random places.

"That was an interesting fight," Gohan said, finally finding the right words. "It was… I don't know."

I shrugged. "I know what you mean."

Vegeta didn't say anything. He simply took to the air towards the lookout.

Krillin put his hands on his hips. "He sure has changed. He's actually… tolerable now. A few years ago, he would have demanded a rematch." He turned to me. "What exactly did you do to him?"

I shrugged. I really didn't know if I had done it to him, or if just the last hectic five years had. I did miss his cocky, 'I'm better than you' attitude. He still had it; but it was one of those things that had been pushed back. Something that didn't dominate him completely.

I think he was finally able to get his priorities straight. He knew now what was important and what wasn't.

I turned to the triplets. "Who wants to race to the look out?"

They sprang to their feet and got into position. They weren't tired anymore, apparently.

"On your mark… get set… go!"

They took off faster than I'd seen them go before.

"Whoa!" I cried and then fallowed after. "See you later, guys!" I called over my shoulder.

I said 'later', but who knew how long that would be?

By the time I caught up, they were all waiting at the base of the tower. When I joined them, we headed upwards.

I realized at once that the triplets had never met Korin or Yargirobe. They were probably going to flip out when they find out that Korin was a cat.

"Goku," Korin said gently when he saw me. "Nice to see you. And Vegeta too? What happened? Did you guys go over bored during a spar, or something?"

I laughed. "Nope; we were just fighting in a tournament. We tied!"

He gave him a slight grin, and then his eyes fell downward towards the children. "And who is this?"

They were all huddled by Vegeta's feet, looking around his knees at the cat.

When they didn't reply, I did for them. "These are the triplets; Vienna's the girl, and the one in the blue is Aizel and the one in the green is Lysander."

He smiled at them, but still seemed confused.

"They're ours," I put in.

At that moment, Yargirobe stepped inside with a bowl of noodles. I at once realized how starving I was. Vegeta and the babies were probably hungry too.

"What do you mean 'yours'?" He asked, slurping from his bowl.

"He means they are our children. They share both of our genetic DNA." Vegeta put in irritably. "We've come for some senzu beans; do you have any left or not?"

The old warrior seemed caught off guard. "Ah… sure," He muttered something, but I didn't catch it.

Korin stayed behind, giving me an amused look. "They are beautiful, Goku."

I grinned, "Thanks."

"Boys are not beautiful," Aizel said, and then hid behind Vegeta's leg when all eyes turned to him.

"Boys can be beautiful," Vienna said, slipping between his legs to face her oldest brother.

"Can not," Aizel said.

"Can too,"

"Can _not_!"

"Can _too_!"

"Hey, hey," Lysander said with a roll of his eyes. "Let's just say your both wrong, okay?"

That didn't help at all. They both tackled him to the ground, and another one of their wrestling matches broke out.

Vegeta gave them a passing glace, before stepping over them to join me on the other side of the room.

I laughed as Vienna and Aizel began trying to throttle each other while they sat atop Lysander, who was trying to pull himself free.

Yargirobe returned and handed me a bag of beans. He glanced at the triplets, who were trying to kill each other. "Are they okay?"

I nodded. "They do that all the time. They probably won't hurt each other too much," I was immediately corrected when Aizel cried out sharply after Vienna fell on top of his hand; the one that was broken.

He wretched himself free and ran to my feet, raising his arms so I would pick him up, a whine on the tip of his tongue. I put a senzu bean into his mouth and told him to chew. I took one and so did Vegeta. Vienna and Lysander were not particularly hurt; but they each got a bean anyway.

"This is ucky," Aizel said, making a sour face as he chewed, his tongue lapping against the roof of his mouth.

I shrugged. "It's better than healing the natural way," I could feel my eye healing; my vision first becoming blurry, and then slightly more clear until it was perfect once more.

He didn't seem to catch was I meant. He swallowed with a tight squeeze of his eyes. After a moment, I removed the splint from his hand.

"Better?" I asked.

He moved his fingers as he examined his wrist. He looked up at me in bewilderment. "Magic…" He whispered.

The other two nodded with a purr, agreeing with him. I frowned slightly. Now I was the only one that didn't know how to purr.

After a brief chat, we headed home.

"That was fun," I said to Vegeta quietly once they children had fallen asleep on the way there. They easily clung to our clothes, just like baby monkeys. It was pretty cute, actually. "I'm tired though."

He nodded and then yawned, his mouth opening wide.

Once we arrived home, we put the triplets into their room and then hung out in the living room for a while.

"How about a drink?" He asked casually.

At some point, he had taken the liberty to stalk up enough liquor in the house to keep us good and drunk for days.

We started with some wine; and then moved on to the harder stuff.

As the night went on, and I became less and less coherent, my mind began to wonder with various indecent thoughts.

Before long, the table, which was brand new, was covered with empty bottles of various alcohols. And still, there was plenty more to drink.

I found that when Vegeta was drunk, he became really touchy-feely. He would kiss me, nuzzle against me, put his hands in inappropriate places; not that I minded.

At one point, he had managed to get me onto my back and he was sitting between my legs, watching me with a tipsy, dazed look in his eye. Without warning, he grabbed my crotch with unmatched quickness.

I gasped in surprise and went to pry him away, every muscle in my body tensing.

"Relax," He told me and squeezed a little.

My breath hitched. "Vegeta-!"He began kneading me through my pants. Arousal was instant.

"Easy…" He purred, his voice lowering to a sexy whirring sound. He repositioned himself so his legs lay on either side of my own. I could see the hardness in his pants as it was; which only excited me further. I also noticed that the pants he was wearing belonged to me.

As he purred and touched me as the same time, he dropped down to catch my lower lip between his teeth. He sucked on it as if it were candy. His tongue prodded at my lips until I opened my mouth to allow him to slip inside.

He removed his hand, which caused me to half groan inside his mouth, and he rested both his arms on the couch behind my head. His hips arched forwards until our arousals touched. He began to grind against me; hips rolling tactfully.

I moaned, forcing my tongue into his mouth. I could taste the alcohol; which might have been gross; if I wasn't so drunk as it was.

In an attempted to take control of the situation, I grabbed both his wrists and pulled them away from the couch, causing his chest to lower onto my own. I did not break our kiss, though, as I gently brought up one knee between his legs and swiftly flipped us both over.

We almost fell off the couch; which would have been funny; but not hot at all.

He growled at me, breaking the kiss. "I'll be on top," He insisted.

I shook my head and went to kiss him again.

He turned away so I kissed his neck instead. "I'll be on top." His speech was slurred, but sure nonetheless.

I sighed at his stubbornness. I allowed him to crawl out from underneath me and make his way to the bedroom.

I fallowed hastily, not wanting to miss anything.

I closed the door behind us and locked it; just in case little eyes decided they wanted to take a peek.

He shoved me down onto the bed. I had to admit, I did enjoy the moments when he was the aggressor.

He pulled off my pants, not interested in my shirt, apparently. He pulled off and then tossed my underwear to the other side of the room; where they came to hang on the lamp.

I pulled my own shirt off over my head and then went to take off his clothes as well.

He pushed my hands away and stumbled away from the bed. He must have had a lot more to drink than I had. He gave me a smirk and then slowly began to remove his clothes.

He pulled off his skin-tight shirt achingly slow; to reveal first a tight set of abs and narrow hips, and then a hard chest and dark nipples. He twirled the shirt over his head like a stripper, arching his back, and then let it go; allowing it to go wherever it pleased.

That smirk had yet to leave his face as he turned around, his gorgeous, muscular back towards me.

My pants, which he was wearing, were a few sizes too big, and were only held on his frame by one of my belts. He loosened it, and then tossed it to the floor.

He let his pants drop to the floor quickly, to revile a pair of black boxer-briefs that barely covered half his ass, and clung to him like skin.

He turned around, an amused expression on his face. He crawled into bed.

I didn't know whether to be turned on or annoyed by the undergarments; usually he wore nothing at all down there, which gave me easy access whenever I pleased.

He crawled atop me and pressed his lips to mine. I grabbed his hips and meant to pull off the underwear, but he pushed my hands away during every attempted.

Frustrated, I slapped his ass; admitting a loud _thwap_.

He growled, pulling away from me. He grabbed both my wrists and forced me to lay them at my side. He then placed his knees over them to keep me still.

I could have probably managed to free my hands eventually, but that was hardly any fun at all.

He sat up, coming to sit perfectly on my throbbing member. This excited and upset me more than I thought it would. He stared at me blankly, as if he didn't know what was wrong with me. The tightness in his pants contradicted the look on his face, though.

He repositioned his hips, grinding against me slightly.

My breath came out in a quick exhale, my fingers digging into the sheets. I bucked upwards, which caused him to shift, but didn't seem to faze him at all.

He put a hand on my hip and leaned forwards, cocking his head towards me. "You okay?" The pretend concern in his voice was maddening.

"Vegeta," I said in a scolding tone.

"Yes?" He blinked, his expression like that of a child.

"Stop it," I ordered.

"Stop what?" He repositioned his hips again, which caused me to half-writhe beneath him.

I groaned. "You know what," I said with frustration.

He shook his head. "I don't." His face was a few inches away from my own. That childish expression both made me want to punch him and fuck him until he couldn't stand anymore.

I leaned up to steal a kiss but he pulled away.

"That's dirty," He stated, as if embarrassed.

"And this isn't?" I asked, motioning towards his current position.

At once, the façade was over. That familiar smirk came to take over his face. He pulled back his knees from my arms and stood up on the bed.

He towered over me as he slipped the boxer-briefs down off his hips. I sat up at once and began to touch him everywhere.

"Hey, hey, hey," He said sitting back down on the bed and pushing my hands away. "Behave yourself."

Further intoxicated by his presence and his current dominance, I ached to do to him what I pleased; but at the same time, I wanted him to take control over me.

He pressed me down to the bed with his knee. I grinned at his proud erection, but he didn't pay me any mind.

He grasped my own throbbing member and paused for a moment, cocking his head. He seemed to be thinking.

I groaned. Leave it to Vegeta to have an epiphany during sex.

He shook his head, seeming to dismiss the thought, and turned his attention back to me. He pressed himself down onto my member inch by maddening inch.

I bucked instantly; and his face clenched slightly before he stopped me by folding his legs beside me, clamping onto my hips like a vice. His legs were now bent at a nearly impossible angle; but he didn't seem to take any notice of it.

I was completely inside him now, awaiting movement. If he held me down for much longer, I knew I was not going to be able to control myself.

I grasped onto his waist, attempting to move him myself. I knew, obviously, that I was physically bigger than he was; but I didn't realize how tiny he really was. My hands fit almost all the way around his waist. He grasped onto my arms firmly, halting me.

"Kakorot," He said with some exasperation, seeming to forget the position we were currently in. "I am not going to tell you again."

He reminded me of a wife who had told me a million times that the cookies were for _after_ dinner, and not a minute before. I smiled at this, and released him.

I was getting upset now. He wasn't moving, and the pressure was building. It took everything I had not to simply ignore his authority and take control.

Finally, after what seemed like several agonizing hours, he began to move. At first, it was just a slight roll of his hips. Then, as the motion went on, he sped up and took me in deeper and deeper.

I thrashed beneath him, wanting to move with him, but trapped.

I noticed that the ceiling was beginning to spin. I was at once reminded of how drunk we both were. His eyes were straining to stay focused as he rocked against me.

I groaned. The room was spinning, my head was swimming, my vision was blurred, and still, I was aware enough to know this _was_ some of the best sex of my life. I made a mental note to let him be on top more often.

He moaned, slowing for a moment, before speeding up again.

He gasped suddenly, his face flashing with surprise. He kept going though, seeming to ignore it.

"You ..okay?" I asked breathlessly as he continued.

He shook his head, indicating that I shut up and let him concentrate.

We finished a moment later. I cried out, my voice hoarse and hot, as cum shot up into him.

He moaned my name, as if I had done something to him instead of the other way around, and then came onto my stomach, his back arching towards me.

He sat there for a moment, before pulling away. Strings of cum connected us for a moment before he was free.

He rolled over to lie next to me on his stomach, panting. He folded his arms beneath him and turned to me, watching. "Fun, huh?"

I laughed tiredly. "You should be on top more often."

He nodded. "More work on top, though."

I smiled in agreement and then changed the subject. "What were you thinking about?"

He stared at me for a moment, trying to understand what I meant. Then his eyes lit up and he seemed to remember. "Before we started fucking?"

I nodded. It annoyed me when he called it that; but it also excited me at the same time; as if the act where something vulgar.

"It was just a random thought; nothing really important right now.

I cocked my head. "Tell me." Now I was curious. His random thoughts were always interesting.

"I was thinking… what are we going to do when the next rut comes around? How are we going to…" He trailed off.

That was a good question. How were we going to keep our children from having sex with each other?

"We'll separate them." I said thoughtfully.

"Separate them?" He thought about this. "They aren't going to like that."

I recalled a time when we had tried to separate them; taking Vienna over to play with Bra while Lysander and Aizel stayed at home. That had been a disaster. The boys had cried for hours, and Vienna had been completely deviated, from what I heard from Bulma. It had taken them days to forgive us.

"By the time they're teenagers, they probably won't mind being apart." I offered.

"And us?"

At first, I didn't understand his question. Then it clicked. "We'll use a condom."

He cocked his head. "Every time?"

I blinked at him. "Do _you_ want three more children?"

He shook his head fiercely.

Don't get me wrong; we loved the triplets; we loved all our children; but after triplets, we'd had our fair share of children for one life time.

"We'll work it out." I promised. "Besides, it's a pretty long ways away, right?"

He didn't respond, seeming lost in thought. He shifted, lifting his head. "I wouldn't mind… if you wanted to add on to the house."

I blinked, my eyes getting heavy. "How do you mean?"

"Build another room. So Vienna does not have to share."

I smiled and nodded. "I thought you were allergic to work,"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I think I can stand to change just a little bit." He waved his hand, as if trying to make his next comment seem like no big deal. "If we plan to spend the rest of our lives together, that is."

I put an arm around his lower back and pulled him to me, our hips bumping together gently. "I plan to,"

He cocked his head, staring into my eyes. "You're sure?" He asked seriously.

I was confused. "Don't you want to?"

He shook his head. "I don't mean I don't want to; I was asking if you're sure you want to spend the rest of your life… with me."

"Of course I do," I paused for a moment. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Because! I'm loud, I'm rude, I'm mean, I'm self-centered, bossy, demanding…" He trailed off before he sighed deeply. "And because... I don't even want to spend the rest of my life with me."

I ran a hand across his cheek, and then caught his jaw. "I want to be with your forever." I kissed his lips gently.

"Why?" He demanded. Apparently, the thought of someone actually _wanting_ to be around him just baffled his sense of logic.

I thought for a moment. "Because I love everything about you. Even your flaws." I paused. "I don't know how to prove it to you... so you'll just have to trust me on this."

I gazed at him for several seconds. His eyes fell to the bed after he realized I was staring at him.

"I love you." He did not even look up. "Say you love me," I demanded, forcing him to look back into my eyes.

His gorgeous dark eyes stared into my own, his gaze unwavering.

"I love you, Kakorot." He whispered; this time without hesitation.


End file.
